Growing up in a public school system, I have seen my share of fights and disorderly behavior, but back in those days I still felt fairly safe within those four walls.
Today, however, it’s a different story: schools are locked down, security cameras watch every move, armed school resource officers walk the halls, teachers and students are taught how to handle active shooter situations, and some schools have even deployed metal detectors at their front entrance to screen for weapons.
There is another growing and disturbing new threat inside our public schools that isn’t being discussed much in the media — the growing violence in the classrooms toward teachers, especially in major metropolitan cities.
Teachers across the country — and especially in larger urban school districts — are suffering alarmingly high rates of student violence and harassment while working in the classroom. Yet amazingly there are very few studies tracking the frequency of these incidents to better understand and control this rising trend.
If you talk to a middle school or high school teacher today, most will tell you that they are or are starting to become alarmed at the growing violence occurring in our schools and it’s fast becoming a national crisis in urban school districts.
For example, in a 2013 article on Townhall.com titled “Why is Violence Against Teachers Being Covered Up” 2010 data was referenced in which a total of 700 assaults by students occurred in Baltimore City Public Schools, where on average of four school personnel were assaulted each day.
For example, in a 2013 article on Townhall.com titled “Why is Violence Against Teachers Being Covered Up” 2010 data was referenced in which a total of 700 assaults by students occurred in Baltimore City Public Schools, where on average four school personnel were assaulted each day.
Fast forward and the violence against teachers continues to increase. According to a recent article published by the American Psychological Association (APA), 80 percent of teachers surveyed were victimized at school at least once in the current or prior school year.
Dr. Dorothy Espelage of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who served as chair of the APA task force on Classroom Violence Directed at Teachers, claims that the issue is given inadequate attention by scholars – a deficiency that has widespread implications for school safety, the teaching profession and student learning.
The U.S. Department of Education said it’s a national crisis with both obvious and hidden costs for teachers and districts. In a July 2015 report addressing teacher victimization by students, (i.e., harassment, theft, property damage and physical attacks) the department cited more than $2 billion lost annually.
As a safety and risk management professional who works with school districts in Kentucky, I will say that if a growing safety trend isn’t currently being studied, then it will never be addressed by the public or the school administrators.
It’s not like a public school teacher can pick up the phone and call OSHA to come fix their safety concern, Johnny, who sits in the back of the classroom.
To address school related accidents and injuries, I feel that it’s imperative that any comprehensive examination of school violence should also comprise violence directed at teachers. Teachers should be safe while educating our youth.
Focusing solely on student safety while ignoring teacher victimization only results in an insufficient representation of the safety issues at hand, which makes it that much more difficult to formulate effective risk control solutions.
The direct medical costs and wage replacement costs related to these workers compensation claims are easy to measure and they directly affect the school district’s budget, which is really a burden on local taxpayers and the students in the class room.
But the indirect costs can be much greater and are often times harder to calculate. For every lost time injury there is usually substitute teacher expense generated to replace the injured teacher which in turn reduces the quality of instructional time and negatively impacts student learning in the classroom.
Negative publicity, increased drop-out rates and the teacher attrition costs have to be figured in.
The costs of recruiting, hiring, and training a replacement teacher are substantial. It’s been estimated that the average cost to replace just one teacher is $17,872 in Chicago, and that cost will vary by district according to the National Commission on Teaching America’s Future.
School districts in these urban schools often times are unable to close the student achievement gap because they never close the teaching quality gap because they are constantly rebuilding their staff.
Teachers are not trained in criminal justice, so the focus should be on implementing these fixes to better protect our educators:
Recognize The Problem – School administrators should focus on identifying the problem and taking measures to better control violence and begin providing stronger support to teachers who feel threatened.
Establish Zero Tolerance for Violence – School administrators have to take a zero tolerance to such actions.
Develop Consistent Discipline Management Program – Teachers are less likely to be victimized when students perceive there is consistent discipline management (i.e., fairness and clarity of rules). Teachers who saw their schools as having positive psychosocial climates — with good organizational focus, morale, administrative leadership and planning — were also less likely to be victims.
Form a National Registry – Before you can fix a problem you need to be able to measure just how serious it is so you can measure the effectiveness of your countermeasures. Begin by measuring your school or district incidents until state and federal support can catch up.
Conflict Resolution – Teachers need to see an increase in pre-service education to be better informed about how to confront and deescalate conflicts within their class room. The next generation of teachers will need to develop a better skill-set to better manage conflicts before they escalate.
Develop Mentoring Programs – School districts that employ the use of mentoring programs that help build better relationships with those more troubled students tend to better control violent behavior towards teachers.
More Predictive Analytical Studies – Additional studies must be funded to research the sociological perspective of this issue to better predict such behavior, by reviewing the demographics, school administration resources available in the school, social economic impacts. The entire ecology of the school and the community has to be taken into account to better predict future violence.
Reduce Class Sizes – This is easier said than done, but larger class sizes increase the likelihood of student violence on teachers.
More Parental Involvement – Parents have to be brought into the equation. Parent involvement in their children’s education is one of the biggest predictors of student success and helps reduce violence.
Equip Teacher’s with Staff Duress Panic Alarms – This is a new wearable technology device that can send a silent alarm to the school’s administration and/or school resource officers which identifies the teacher’s exact location through GPS technology called Real-Time Locating Systems.
Utilization of School Safety Tip-Line – Schools can use this service to give students and parents an opportunity to report criminal and potential threats without fear of being identified. Some school districts even offer rewards to encourage students and parents to make this effective, but school districts need to constantly promote the anonymous tip-line and its intended use to achieve its true value.
Our nation’s schools should be a safe haven for teaching and learning, free of crime and violence. Children cannot learn in an environment of fear. When the authority figures in our school systems are attacked, abused and threatened, kids do not feel protected and lose their focus and their respect for the system that cannot protect them.
It’s time to recognize this problem and have a call to action.
Be Safe My Friends.
Keven Moore works in risk management services. He has a bachelor’s degree from University of Kentucky, a master’s from Eastern Kentucky University and 25-plus years of experience in the safety and insurance profession. He lives in Lexington with his family and works out of both the Lexington and Northern Kentucky offices. Keven can be reached at kmoore@roeding.com.
