Violence Against Teachers and School Staff
To date, NIOSH intramural and extramural workplace violence research has focused on the highest risk occupations, including health care workers, taxi cab drivers, and retail sales. Because of an increase in the prevalence of school-based policies aimed at reducing violence in youth and recent reports suggesting that teachers and other school staff may face daily threats of workplace violence, NIOSH was prompted to examine risk factors and prevention polices and practices for workplace violence for K-12 school staff. Recent data demonstrates that teachers experience 39 crimes per 1,000 teachers (25 thefts and 14 violent crimes) and the true rate may be much higher since most incidents go unreported. As recent media reports have illustrated, this is a troubling problem affecting school personnel in elementary, middle and high schools across the nation.
Communities and schools have responded to student-on-student violence through school-based violence prevention programs and policies, yet science-based evaluations of the effectiveness of these programs are rare. It is not known if these programs have any effect on workplace violence rates in teachers and school staff.
With the exception of a recent study by the University of Minnesota which focused only on teachers, NIOSH is undertaking what we believe to be the first study to evaluate the effect of school-based violence prevention programs addressing assaults from students on both teachers and other school staff. Limited prior studies of workplace violence in the teaching field have relied on workers compensation records due to a variety of reasons, including teachers unwillingness to report violent events to police, insufficient reporting mechanisms for reporting non-physical workplace violence events, and acceptance of the risk of workplace violence in the education field. The scant research available demonstrates that teachers and other school employees may be at an increased risk for theft of personal property, verbal threats of physical harm, bullying, abuse, physical assault, and injury.
Working with partners, including the two leading national education unions, NIOSH decided to conduct the study in Pennsylvania as the state includes large urban and rural school districts. The study aims to describe and quantify physical and non-physical workplace violence against teachers and school staff; measure the impact of physical and non-physical workplace violence on job satisfaction and the mental health of teachers and school staff; and determine if nonfatal work-related assault rates are significantly lower in schools that employ student-directed violence prevention programs.
The study and the survey that will be used to collect the data are in the development stage. As we begin this research, NIOSH would like to use the NIOSH Science Blog to hear from teachers, school staff, administrators, and union representatives about prevention programs in their schools and their perceptions of what is and is not working to protect teachers and other school staff.
School violence is a complex issue, and studying workplace violence in the school setting has unique challenges. It is important to protect the health and safety of the professionals who educate and support our youth. We appreciate your comments. They will be invaluable in informing this research and ultimately the evidence-based prevention programs that are generated.
Hope Tiesman, Ph.D., MSPH
Dr. Tiesman is an injury epidemiologist in the Division of Safety Research at NIOSH and the project officer on this study.
NIOSHs extensive research on preventing workplace violence is detailed on the NIOSH website including the NIOSH video, Violence on the Job, which can be downloaded or viewed via streaming video.
More information on student-related violence can be found at CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control including the School-Associated Violent Death Study.
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Comments
Hello, this is great , because I was hit buy an aggresive student and hardly nothing was done, and by the time action is taking someone can get hurt. Please continue the good work and innitiative your group is taken, most of these situations on violance are never reported, it's one of the reasons it continues like in a vicious circle. I was affected imotionally and even took pills and got panic attacks, and even felt someone was following me, it was a terrible experience in my more than 30 years teaching it had never happened and it was supposed to be one of the best schools in town. A much better supervision or investigation or study has to continue on this matter so I congratulate all your people that are putting all thier efforts to continue actions toward this dangerous genetrations or sub-cultures that are evolving.If there is any way that I can contribute to your organization feel free to contact me. Even now I am retired this situation kind of hunts me and has affected me in great deal, my sleep, nerves and daily life. ThankYou and good luck.
Posted 4/14/08 at 9:57 am
No school is exempt from possible violence. However, I am convinced that the rise in violence in our society is due to the lack of an ideological basis for our actions and behavior. We have actively and inaccurately taught public school students that belief in God does not matter enough to talk about in school. That is a HUGE mistake. We cut the ideological base out from under our children!
Secondly, it doesn't matter if you think the Bible is the inspired Word of God or not, it is still the foundation for U.S. law and interaction among human beings in the American society. However, the Bible is avoided like the plague and almost complete ignorance of biblical truth reigns in our society and our schools. Biblical ignorance and lack of faith are the two essential elements required for restoration of civility and they are the most important part of Kingsway's methodology of prevention of violence and development of positive character in our students.
Posted 4/14/08 at 9:46 am
I am not in education, but I have been in law enforcement in various capacities for the past 30 years. As a Security Manager for a hospital, I read a lot about workplace violence. I have a question about your proposed study and then a comment. Why would you not include student-on-student violence in this study? I ask this because I believe everything we do is influenced by where we find ourselves. An environment of violence between anyone tends to increase the acceptance, and perceived effectiveness, of violence. Violence ignored is violence allowed. I believe workplace violence can be reduced if we are all willing to combine preparation and preparedness with an appropriate and unwavering response.
We must also understand that violence is whatever a person thinks it is.
Response to any perceived violence must be commensurate with the reality and the perception of the event. We have to lose the "That could never happen here" mentality that seems to precede so much violence. We can be polite and courteous without surrendering our innate caution to some misperception of how things should be, and fail to recognize how they really are.
Posted 4/14/08 at 10:22 am
Our study does incorporate an examination of student violence prevention programs, in regard to whether the rate of violence against school workers is lower in schools with such programs. NIOSH's mission is research and outreach to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths, and our authority does not extend to nonoccupational issues of health and safety. However, we are committed to working with other agencies and organizations that are examining student-on-student violence, such as the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, to join our respective areas of expertise in the development of comprehensive violence prevention programs.
Posted 4/25/08 at 3:03 pm
Violence not only occurs in K-12, but also in our colleges and universities. Several years ago a college student entered one of the classrooms at Ferris State University and shot his professor to his death - in front of his classmates. Of course, this made national news!
The professor was just beginning his career.
Frightening. We do have a problem with violence in our schools at all levels and your research will provide insight in the right direction for further study and action.
Good luck!
Posted 4/14/08 at 10:36 pm
Understanding, researching and working to prevent violence in the school workplace is essential. The basis of all education is the protection of the health, safety and welfare of all students and staff so that, hopefully, students can learn at a maximum and teachers can teach at a maximum in a safe and orderly environment. I welcome the study as the more we know, the better we will be equipped to resolve the problem.
Posted 4/15/08 at 11:36 pm
Great to hear that you are doing a study. My company trains instructors for many schools in Pa. in a curriculum known as Safe Crisis Management. It is a comprehensive program that equips school personnel with a capacity to prevent, de-escalate, provide emergency response and complete appropriate after action tasks when students engage in unruly or dangerous behavior. We have been doing a survey on some of our outcomes with schools across the country. We have some data that may be of interest to you.
It is our experience that most schools (save special education programs) pay little attention to preparing teachers for the behavior issues they will face with today's students. In particular, they are not prepared to deal with serious misbehavior. In service training is relegated to a minimum - and is most often focused on curriculum issues. This doesn't make sense when you calculate the fact that teachers are responsible for one third of the students daily life experience. When teachers are trained on behavior issues they are more confident in everything they do. Students recognize this confidence and respond accordingly.
We need to begin to think differently about the mission of education - it must become wider in scope and encompass social growth and development, as well as, academic achievement.
Posted 4/18/08 at 4:22 pm
While looking into this, please also look into the incidence of workplace bullying against teachers. It is very common in education generally. The Waitt Institute against Violence teamed with the Workplace Bullying Institute to fund the Zogby poll last summer. The results show a staggering 37% are personally victims.
If any teacher is struggling with this in Wasington State, you can contact the workplace bullying institute at www.bullyinginstitute.org and/or email stopthebullies@comcast.net for support.
Posted 4/25/08 at 8:46 pm
Hi, I am a new teacher in an urban setting and also working on my graduate degree in education. In the past six months I have been the victim of several verbal attacks and have heard of a least 3 physicall assults on teachers by students. For a Social Foundations class I am taking I have choosen to study the ideological forces that perpetuate this type behavior in students against teachers. I am very intersted in any information that may be helpful in developing my paper because I have found it quite imposible to find information that did not include student to student violence. I also wish to extend my best wishes to you and your study as I hope it may shed some greatly need light on the situation help create a better future for all involved.
Posted 6/22/08 at 2:44 pm
Please don't eliminate ALL LEVELS of Special Ed. in your studies. Something needs to be done about it because not only are the staff at risk but the other sweet/precious students in class with them are in danger of being seriouly harmed as well. If the other parents only knew how violent some Special Ed. students can be they would never allow their child to be within ten feet of the violent student never mind in the same setting.
There is usually one or two in every class and there is insufficient staffing provided to deal with them. There are special programs for the violent students but then whatever School District that student lives in has to "foot the bill" and those programs are very expensive due to the fact that they have sufficient facilities and staffing. Public school is not the place for these students.
Posted 7/8/08 at 11:50 pm
I was a parapro at a highschool in a selfcontained emotional behavior disorder. This had been my fourth year in this setting. Up to the present time I had a good respectful relationship with most of my students. They had come from diffrent back grounds but all had the same needs of needing structure with being treated respectfully and beging held accountable for their actions.
That came to an end when we recieved the freshmen students from the adjoing middle schools. These students had been in very structured classrooms at alternative school and never with the regular student population. Most had been in Jail at some time or another for voilent acts.
This was very difrent from the behavior of the other students I had worked with. I and the teacher was continualled bullied and physically and mentally threatened. These students were beyond our capabilities and needed psycothearpy in a much stricter enviorment than what a regular high school can give.
When I went to the athorities, the principle, three assitant principles, and school officer, they all asked one question,"what did you do to cause the student to behave this way?" When the teacher went to the school councelor for help to allivate fights within the classroom he was told, "You are the teacher you can handle the situation."
We recieved no backup from any athority allowing the students to continue and grow more bold in there threats. I had to take a medical leave after having panic attacks and sever mental depression. I went into an intensive therapy and am now on my way to a strong recovery. I am sad to say that I can never go back to that situation but deeply miss the kids that had true behavior problems that stemmed from Autism and other related proplems.
Posted 7/21/08 at 11:15 am
Hi:
I am researching violence against teachers and am looking for data on the teachers not the students as well as cost data. If anyone has infor on this or links it would certainly be appreciated.
Posted 7/28/08 at 10:55 pm
The best resource for national data on violent events to teachers is the National Center for Educational Statistics. They support a survey called "Indicators of School Crime and Safety." One of the collected indicators is the nonfatal teacher victimization rate. The 2005-2006 data is currently summarized in the link provided below:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/crimeindicators2007/
Best of luck!
Posted 8/21/08 at 2:22 pm
My school has recently withdrawn most services of the Dean's Office, where teachers make discipline referrals. We were advised to more closely distinguish between benign and hostile swearing. So we must consider the context in which someone utters m*****f***** before we "overreact". Also, we cannot make any discipline referrals until we have documented three incidents and three parent phone calls for the behavior issue in question.
We are also being asked to more closely monitor our own inappropriately confrontational behavior.
There is all manner of horribly offensive verbal abuse and threatening behavior toward teachers at my school, but we are being asked to calmly continue teaching when these incidents occur, and not interrupt instruction to request help. With a loud and aggressive high school student, this seems like an overwhelming, almost impossible task.
Posted 4/1/09 at 3:09 pm
I have been a successful teacher for 4 years. I started teaching at a new school this year in the first grade and have seen things at this school that I have never seen in my life. I have had to evacuate my class several times this year because of a violent student. He has thrown chairs, spit on me and students, thrown books, etc. I am worried about the safety of the other students in my class. We have tried several interventions with the counselor, behavior contracts, etc. Other teachers are experiencing similar experiences. As a school, we are recieving no help from the district in addressing these violent behaviors. We keep hearing that "all students have the right to an education." We are worried about the rest of the students in our school. What are our rights as teachers? What rights do the other students have? Please help!!!
Posted 4/24/09 at 11:36 pm
Thank you for sharing your story and concerns on this topic. We have heard similar stories through our interaction with educational unions, school districts, and various departments of education. As a result of this research study, we hope to learn about possible risk and protective factors for violence directed at teachers and paraprofessionals. This is a first step in the development of polices and training programs aimed at reducing such incidents. All schools and school districts in the U.S. are run at the state level. Therefore, policies and guidelines can vary dramatically from state to state and district to district. Teachers unions also vary by state and district. You may want to review your district policies or consult your teachers union.
Posted 5/4/09 at 11:38 am
beautiiful blog merciiiiii
Posted 5/13/09 at 5:19 am
I am a prospective teacher at a school in Trinidad in the West Indies. I am quite aware of the incidents of violence against teachers but I still chose to do my Bachelor's degree in Education. The number of incidents have been on the rise in my point of view. We can only pray for a drastic change.
Posted 6/18/09 at 2:44 am
In Texas a teacher has the right to remove a student permanently from their class. This is not a very openly discussed right and I think many teachers are unaware that they have this choice. I have never used it, but I have informed very difficult students that choice. I also tell them while they are in my classroom, no one will be disrespected including students.
After 30 years of teaching, the last 8 in middle school, I feel 95% of the violent acts can be avoided. Just like life, 5% of negative events just happen.
We are living in a dangerous world. School is a reflection of our world.
I wish it was possible to analyze all the events that lead up erupting violence.
Posted 6/30/09 at 7:21 pm
I was involved in hundreds of assaults, fights, riots, etc. during my 35 year career. In my 32nd year I actually paid for training dealing with armed/unarmed attacks. I felt this training was necessary to protect innocent students, teachers, and myself from aggressive behavior. My training is similar to the training provided to unarmed ATF agents. I proposed this training to the NEA and I was basically ignored. Schools would rather see teachers an innocent bystanders injured rather than face lawsuits from the "thugs". I thought I would be a teacher trainer and mentor to educators to talk about proactive and physical aspects of assaults but most teachers, administrators and school boards just hope they will be exempted from violence. I cannot believe that people can live with themselves after being touched by violence and not prepare for the eventual results.
Posted 6/30/09 at 11:11 pm
The University environment, unfortunately, is equally full of bullying, threatening and harrassing behavior toward teachers. I was shocked at how poorly administration handled a situation that escalated out of control when the early signs were so obvious. I learned a great deal about the covert factors in Universities that, despite "education" and knowledge, may actually have a greater impact on whether or not that knowledge gets applied and appropriate interventions implemented. I am planning to become involved in writing about the prevention of violence toward teachers. All too often teachers are marginalized victims, at every grade level, of the educational system. How many will be shot (along with their students who may be in the way) before we look at Universities?
Those "bullies" in grade school, do go on to college. By the time they've gotten to college, they may be even better skilled at doing harm via 'nonphysical', less obvious, but equally harmful means. K-12 is a good start. Now we need follow-through. We're seeing the shootings...the build-up has been happening for a long time.
We can all participate in prevention, much like we can participate in working toward the prevention of domestic violence or rape prevention, but it takes more than the victim to stop it. Right now, some teachers are silent sufferers who first need a voice.
Posted 7/30/09 at 7:14 pm
I am a teacher in a special education center for emotionally disturbed high school students. I have been threatened almost daily with students coming at me with lunch trays, throwing desks, chairs and whatever they can find.
The verbal abuse is debilitating, the work environment is poor.
Administration is too busy trying to look good so she refuses to address the problem. So I have organized a meeting with my union rep to address teacher safety and teacher's rights to call the police and file charges against violent students. They don't belong in special ed much like June pointed out above. They are what is called socially maladjusted or conduct disorder which is not a special education placement. Many high schools can't wait to offload violent student to special education sites so they can be done with them.
Teachers stand up and be counted, we deserve and we are promised a safe and healthful workplace by our state and federal occupational health and safety laws. Demand your rights or principals will let you suffer in silence!
Posted 9/24/09 at 9:43 pm
I have been an educational assistant for 14 years. I work in a schoolboard that promotes inclusion. We say that all children deserve an education. I'm working with a student who is violent regularly and I'm worn out. I understand that this student has a right to an education, but so do the rest of the students in the school who's safety is at risk. And what about the safety of myself and this violent student? I do not feel equipped to help this child get an education when he is ustable most of the time. I love my students but I feel public education is not for everyone. The situation is frustrating to say the least. I am at a loss.
Posted 11/17/09 at 4:52 pm
Thank you for your comment. We have heard similar stories through our interaction with educational unions, school districts, and various departments of education. Please see the response to comment 13 above.
Posted 11/20/09 at 1:38 pm