Chairs and tables used as projectiles, blows and even a strangulation attempt: the violence in a primary school in Beauce has become so unbearable that the Standards, Equity, Health and Safety Commission ( CNESST) ordered the cessation of “educational services”.
For several months, the staff of a class for children with autism spectrum disorder at Maribel Elementary School in Sainte-Marie, Beauce, experienced “recurrent and unpredictable” aggression attempts, reads -on in a recent CNESST decision that provides insight into the violence that school staff sometimes face.
In a little over a month, “14 blows, 3 overturning of furniture, 10 running away, 14 throwing objects, 3 threats, 1 biting, 4 squeezing or pinching arms, urinating 3 times voluntarily at outside the toilet and 1 strangulation attempt,” the May report reads that The Press obtained.
As a result, the CNESST ruled on May 16 that there was a danger to “the health, safety and physical and mental integrity” of workers in this class and prohibited “the performance of educational service work “.
The workers referred to in the report may be “teachers, special education technicians (TES), child care technicians or social work technicians or any other worker” within the meaning of the law, we specified the CNESST.
Children with “diseases or disabilities”
What happened in this class? At the Beauce-Etchemin school service center (CSSBE), it is explained that for reasons of confidentiality, we cannot give details on the number of students who have exhibited violent behavior or on what the cessation of services actually means. educational.
“These are children who have illnesses or disabilities, they become disorganized. They don’t do it on purpose, they don’t want to hurt intentionally, it’s because of their condition that it happens, ”explains Caroline Drouin, personnel management advisor at the CSSBE.
The CNESST smears the CSSBE in its report and notes that despite the presence of physical and verbal violence on a daily basis, both towards students and towards staff, no report or investigation has been submitted to it to “demonstrate management of the events “.
It also reads that “workers do not have the proper training and supervision […] to meet the specific needs of users with aggressive and unpredictable behavior”.
At the CSSBE, we deny having been slow to act. “No one closed their eyes. We worked in collaboration with partners, management, people in the community to try to improve the situation,” said Ms.me Drouin. Changes have since been made, she adds.
A “reflection” of what is happening in other classes
According to the president of the Chaudière Education Union, this case is “somewhat a reflection of what is happening in the school adaptation classes”.
“There are a lot of classes where there are kicks, punches, bites. This is an issue that concerns us every year,” says Dominic Loubier.
The CNESST approach will have “brought changes to the way of managing these cases”, he wishes.
The organization confirms that it lifted its teaching ban on May 30 “following the corrective measures put in place by the employer”. The CSSBE has reorganized the classrooms and “implemented a protocol and tools for communication and intervention in the event of a crisis”.
The rise in violence in schools has been documented extensively in recent months. In a recent survey conducted by the Federation of Public Service Employees (FEESP-CSN), one-third of school support staff said they had suffered physical violence.
At the end of March, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said he was “extremely concerned” about violence in schools and said he was working on a strategy to counter it.
Dominic Loubier also notes that there is more violence than before in the schools.
“No teacher is safe from a thrown chair,” sighs the president of the Chaudière Education Union.
With William Leclerc, The Press