Punched, bitten, kicked, scratched
Education assistants are on front lines of elementary school violence
One day at work this week, educator Francine Meledoro had a pencil and a ruler thrown at her. She used her body to block a student from hurling a chair at a classmate. And she was called to help when a child ran out of class into another room and climbed on top of a desk. It was a typical day at her Ottawa elementary school. In more than a decade as an educational assistant, she’s also been kicked, bitten, hit and scratched. It’s a job many people might not be familiar with but has become a key one as schools deal with an increasing number of aggressive students. Educational assistants like Meledoro are frontline workers who help kids with special-education and medical needs and mental health and behaviour challenges. Many work in regular classrooms, where children with a wide variety of needs are integrated.
They are the largest job category among the CUPE educational support staff now working to rule at schools across Ontario. They make up about one-third of the 55,000 workers poised to go on strike on Oct. 7 if contract negotiations, set to resume Friday, fail.
Many educational assistants say their jobs have changed over the past few years as they become increasingly focused on dealing with what they call “behaviours” — as in bad behaviours, from cursing to punching. That was the consensus among half a dozen educational assistants the Citizen interviewed from both of Ottawa’s English-language school boards and 15 from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board who replied in writing to questions about their jobs. Many said violent behaviour is on the rise. “No training can prepare you for really being hurt,” wrote one.
“Personally, I am done being a punching bag so that other students don’t get hurt.”
Meledoro said she required physiotherapy and still has a weak wrist after a student grabbed her during an outburst. Some students “just can’t control their movements in the heat of the moment when they are upset,” she said.
She’s been kicked and jabbed in the eye with a thumb, had nails broken and objects thrown at her, from water bottles to basketballs. “Scratching. Lots of scratches. I have scars on the tops of my hands. Bite marks.”
If a child breaks the skin, educational assistants go to a medical clinic and get a tetanus shot.
She describes some recent scenarios: a kindergarten child having a tantrum and flipping over tables or pulling books off shelves. “Runners” heading for the exit. When that happens, staff block the doors. “A lot of times these elementary kids run and kind of body slam into you to see if you’ll move.”
Meledoro and fellow teaching assistant Cynthia Lee said they have always dealt with challenging behaviours as part of their job. But it used to be mainly verbal abuse, not physical violence, especially among elementary kids.
The needs among students are increasingly complex.
“There’s just not enough of us to help them and support their education,” Lee said.
Increasingly, assistants said they spend their days just trying to keep kids safe. “More time putting out fires than teaching strategies/ coping skills,” wrote one assistant from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Another, who described working with 12 students in five classrooms, said there is simply “no time to teach appropriate behaviour and social skills.”
“I have been told repeatedly that if we are helping kids with academics in a classroom that we can be better utilized somewhere else to deal with behaviours,” wrote another.
Classrooms are regularly “evacuated” when one child becomes uncontrollable, the person wrote.
“Property can be destroyed, staff verbally threatened and targeted with intent to harm. Non-compliance is frequent and students are struggling with the concept of teachers and support staff being worthy of respect.”
Another said she was assigned seven students “with issues” in a class of 26. One student had anxiety and two had autism, one of whom had the habit of screaming. Another three were “very energetic boys with rough manners: hitting, pushing, using inappropriate language.”
The assistant described the day the child with anxiety ran out of class.
“I had to leave the teacher alone with 26 children and run throughout the school to locate that child. I was very worried about the teacher in the classroom. How will she manage the class if another child gets, for example, an anger tantrum?”
Another wrote that she had “wonderful experiences with students and staff,” but the job has changed. “When I first began, 15 years ago, my assignment was usually to watch over and assist a flagged student who was experiencing difficulties academically, which typically was responsible for social outbursts due to frustrations building when unable to cope with expectations.”
Now, educational assistants rush around dealing with behaviour problems, the person wrote.
“It’s really sad as the time needed to build a quality relationship that could benefit the student in all domains is in very short supply and behaviours do appear to be definitely on the rise.”
Another assistant described being assigned 20-minute blocks in each classroom. That prompts students to see educational assistants “as a consequence (for bad behaviour) rather than a supportive person,” the person wrote.
Cynthia Steeves, who was an educational assistant before taking a job as vice-president of the CUPE local representing support staff at the Ottawa Catholic School Board, said reports of physical assault are common.
One assistant was off work with a concussion after a student threw a three-hole punch at the back of her head. “She didn’t see it coming. It took her right down.”
The Ottawa Catholic School Board serves more students with complex needs who have behaviour problems than it did five or 10 years ago, said board spokesperson Sharlene Hunter.
However, the board’s goal is to provide a safe learning and working environment, and it has more educational assistants in classrooms than the provincial average, according to a survey last year, she said.
Both school boards provide training in behaviour management, but many educational assistants said they would welcome more. Assistants are also offered protective gear, including helmets, padded jackets and arm guards.
Several, however, said the gear was hot and uncomfortable or they fear it would simply scare students or be an incentive for aggressive ones to test it out.
“Personal protective equipment is a ridiculous option,” wrote one assistant. “No one should need to be dressed like someone from a bomb squad or SWAT team to work in a school in Ottawa or Ontario.”
Meledoro said the stress of the job goes home with her. “It’s hard to shut the switch off at night,” she said. “Because we do care for the kids. I love these kids. I work with them and I want the best for them.
“I go home at night thinking, how could I have avoided that?’ There’s just not enough time to do it all.” jmiller@postmedia.com
No one should need to be dressed like someone from a bomb squad or SWAT team to work in a school in Ottawa or Ontario.