School support staff particularly at risk of violence

Four concussions, lumbar sprain, whiplash and shoulder injury. Until 2019, Claudine Léveillé practiced a dangerous sport: technician in special education with students with serious behavioral problems.

Louise Leduc
The Press

“The doctor warned me. If I had another concussion, it could be more serious. »

She took note of this and this notably motivated her decision to withdraw from the field and join trade unionism.

Violent incident reports

The Federation of Public Service Employees (FEESP-CSN), which represents support employees in the school sector, sent us incident and accident reports from various school service centers that affected its members. . These include special education technicians, daycare service technicians, student supervisors, etc.

In bulk, a few examples relating to the Laurentian school service center.

“The student bites my left forearm. “The student was having a fit in the hallway and he hit me with both fists in the stomach. “He threw a chair at me, he pushed me and finally hit me three or four times on the right arm. »

“My colleague and I dragged him out of the classroom, holding him by the shoulders and feet. […] Since this intervention, my hand is swollen […] “I ask the student to wait a minute. She gets angry and punches me in the neck. She is positioning herself to give others. »

Nothing happens, then it often degenerates, as illustrated by another report of assaults, which occurred at the Découverters school service center, in the Quebec region, against support employees.

“A student got angry because he was not the first in line. He kicked me with his feet on my legs. »

“Student X kicked me in the stomach when she was upset that she couldn’t go to the small yard. »

“I’m in the door frame. He springs up and slams the door on me. »

Special education technicians are particularly exposed, since they work with children with behavioral problems, explains Annie Charland, president of the school sector at the Federation of Public Sector Employees.

The importance of prevention

Could things be otherwise, given the nature of their work?

The key, according to M^me Charland is that they have more time to do prevention. Currently, “they can only put out fires” when they should rather act upstream “by teaching social skills, anger management, etc. »

M^me Charland also notes that the problems often arise at the end of the day, when the children are tired, when the effects of the medication of certain children have dissipated and when there are too many of them at daycare.

Due to the lack of staff, the same children who are followed by specialists during school hours find themselves at the end of the day with daycare service educators who find themselves alone with groups of 20 or 30 children, points out M.^me Charland.

In fact, the shortages are such, in childcare services, that some of those who were imploding asked parents at the start of the school year to unregister their children.

The educators would like a quieter work environment, but these noisy environments “also have repercussions on the children”, notes Ms.^me Charland.

Lack of staff

In one of the specialized schools for which The Press was able to look through the accident reports, the ratios are already one teacher and one special education technician for every five children. Despite this, the work is difficult, dangerous.

Can school service centers really reduce groups even further?

Claudine Léveillé admits that the answer is not simple for school service centers either. “I don’t deny that they often have to be caught between student needs and costs,” she says.

But she refuses to believe that violence is such a part of the daily lives of school staff.

“I believe in the education of students, but not at all costs,” she says, advocating an education that would be adapted to everyone and that would perhaps go through fewer hours in class for some.

Above all, she pleads for all these issues to stop being shoveled into the sole courtyard of the school system. The health and social services sector should help more with the care of children, she believes.

Between 1^er September 2021 and on January 31, 2022 alone, 16 cases of assault were the subject of an accident report at the Laurentides school service center.

The FEESP-CSN also counted 227 physical attacks by students against unionized or managerial staff at the Samares school service center, in Lanaudière, between September 2021 and June 2022.

But across Quebec, the FEESP-CSN notes that this is only part of the reality. “Employees often don’t complete the reports, saying they lack time or minimizing the seriousness of what happened,” explains Annie Charland.

Stéphanie Fournelle-Maurice, spokesperson for the Laurentides school service center from which the first series of examples mentioned in the article were taken, points out that these cases are not necessarily linked to delinquency. “In the majority of cases, these acts are committed by students with disabilities or difficulty adapting. “We consider that the shortage of labor can play an important role in these acts of violence”, adds Mrs.^me Fournelle-Maurice.

By email, the Center de services scolaire des Découvreurs assures that it is aware “of the challenges posed by the accompaniment of these students with special needs to [son] staff” and says “to be in solution mode in order to ensure an adequate school environment for the students and staff of [ses] special schools”.