'Startling numbers': Workplace violence on the rise at local public schools

The number of reported workplace violence incidents is up within Algoma District School Board classrooms.

Numbers in a report provided to the ADSB for its regular monthly meeting Tuesday showed there were a total of 1,271 reported incidents of workplace violence in the 2022-2023 school year.

That’s up from over 900 reported incidents in 2018-2019.

The incidents involve actions by students toward elementary school teachers, secondary school teachers and their support staff.

A group of approximately 40 unionized educational assistants, teachers’ aides, noon-hour aides, occasional teachers, custodians and parents attended Tuesday’s meeting.

Some told reporters afterwards that they have been punched, bitten or kicked by students, many in primary grades.

“The definition of workplace violence is a broad definition. It could be comments. It could be kicks. It could be other acts. It’s determined by the individual and it’s encouraged to report. They have the right under Bill 168 to be able to report that and we encourage it,” said Joe Santa Maria, ADSB associate director of corporate services and operations, in an interview with reporters after Tuesday’s meeting.

Bill 168 is Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Act (Violence and Harassment in the Workplace).

“A number of factors” are involved with the rise of reported incidents, Santa Maria said.

“We’ve had an increase in enrollment since that period of time, a significant increase (since 2018-2019). We also have encouraged people, over that period of time, to report and that’s really the way to be able to find out how to approach solutions to some of the issues being brought forward.”

The following information, contained in a report to the board, shows the number of reported workplace violence incidents toward different groups of workers in the 2022-2023 school year:

• Care Staff / Maintenance: 0 
• Support Staff: 745 
• Elementary Teachers: 482 
• Secondary Teachers: 13
• Clerical: 0 
• Non Union Workers: 31

The process of reporting a workplace violence incident includes the affected worker completing an online report.

The report then makes its way to the board. Disciplinary action toward the student can be taken if the board deems it necessary.

“There are a number of different strategies that come into play and discipline is one of those strategies but it’s not the sole strategy either because kids coming to school might have different needs and we’re attentive to that," Santa Maria said. "Our staff try to attend to our students’ needs every day and some come with challenges."

Suspensions or expulsions of students are the last resort, Santa Maria said. 

"It depends on the issue and it depends on what is happening at the school with respect to the support plan and with respect to the student.”

Santa Maria did not have figures on student suspensions or expulsions available Tuesday.

Shelly Predum, Algoma Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario president representing 471 members, told reporters she is “not surprised” by the rising number of reported workplace violence incidents in ADSB schools.

Predum said one classroom was recently evacuated three times because of violence from the same student.

“That child’s not getting the support he needs to be successful and those other students aren’t getting the supports and the education they deserve,” Predum said.  

The unionized support staff agreed that some incidents involve the same students committing acts of violence on a repeated basis.

“There’s a point where the child has to have some other outside agency’s support out of the classroom that can help them integrate back into the classroom. They need to be removed at some point. Nobody wants to do that. The kid’s removed one day and comes back the very next day,” said Sharon Indrevold, an occasional teacher with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. 

“What if we had a room in the school as a de-escalation room? A safe, calming place. Why can’t we get the resources together to find a space for those children, to help them,” said Jess Lafreniere, an OSSTF early childhood educator.

Very few schools have such space, Lafreniere said.

Support staff said that the online reporting tool supplied by the ADSB to report workplace violence incidents is not user friendly and time consuming, even impossible when caring for other children.

The reporting tool was developed by the Ontario Education Services Corp (OESC) for all school boards.

“I’ve done probably 10 reports this year. Those numbers would be in the thousands if members had time,” said Michele McCleave-Kennedy, Sault Ste. Marie and District Labour Council President and an educational assistant who has been injured in the classroom.

“We’re wearing kevlar (a synthetic, lightweight fibre that protects from injury) in Kindergarten,” McCleave-Kennedy said.  

The workers also said responses to their reports of violence are not answered by the board in a timely fashion.

“We need programs that when these kids should be expelled, they’re expelled into a program where they can learn and come back. We used to have that program here at this board. We need to have programs to help those kids learn better and come back into the classroom," McCleave-Kennedy said.  

Santa Maria commented on some of the workers’ concerns after the meeting.

“We have processes in place and we like to have a response (to reports of violence) that’s timely. Some take more planning around conflict situations.”

“The software being used (to report violence) is a software that’s developed for every school board across the province. It’s a software tool that takes getting used to. It takes time to get used to that software and people just don’t use that software every day,” Santa Maria said.

“In regards to workplace violence and harassment these are startling numbers. They’re really high,” said ADSB trustee Greg Bowman during Tuesday’s board meeting.

Santa Maria said the board is following a policy of helping children who commit violent acts in the classroom to adjust their in-class behaviour and reintegrate.

“There are a number of different things that happen at each school with respect to solutions. Usually each student would have a support plan so we want to make sure that the support plan is being followed. You can have an incident, a debrief and then a plan in place and we want to make sure those plans are in place going forward.”