The number of acts of violence targeting school support staff reported in schools in the province has exploded in recent years, show data compiled by the Federation of School Support Staff (FPSS-CSQ) released this Thursday . A situation that harms staff retention, warns the organization, which urges the government to act on this issue.
Last year, 13,464 acts of violence of all kinds were compiled by the 61 school service centers and school boards in Quebec who responded to requests for access to information which will be the subject of a conference press release from the CSQ this morning. This represents a growth of 55% compared to the average noted over the last four years, this data shows, which Duty was able to consult under embargo.
Employees are thus “spit on”, “bite”, even “thrown a chair” as part of their work, which harms staff retention, mentions the president of the Federation of school support staff, Éric Pronovost , in interview at Duty Tuesday.
“We have a labor shortage in Quebec, and that’s one of the primary reasons,” says the emotional union representative. “We did not take care of our employees properly, we did not put measures in place [pour prévenir les actes de violence] and we can’t stand them in these situations,” continues Mr. Pronovost. He therefore urges Quebec to quickly tackle this problem.
“We are tired of public words, we want concrete actions,” continues Mr. Pronovost, who calls for the deployment of more social work technicians in schools so that they can better prevent these acts of violence. He also calls for school staff to be involved in the work carried out by the ministry as part of its Plan for the Prevention of Violence and Bullying in Schools. “It will take concrete solutions and we want to participate in them,” he demands.
“Yes, we must denounce as we are doing here, but above all we must propose solutions, act in prevention, and that is what we want to do in the coming months and years,” also insists the president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, Éric Gingras. “We need to put a stop to violence in our schools. »
Physical violence
Data compiled by the CSQ shows 39,863 school staff who reported to their employer that they had been victims of an act of violence over the last six years. Several school organizations were, however, unable to specify the employment class of the people who experienced these situations, while the origin of 54% of the acts of violence is unknown.
“It doesn’t make common sense,” says Éric Pronovost, who wonders “how we can resolve” the problem of violence in schools “if we don’t have data.”
Although partial, the information obtained by the CSQ shows that the vast majority of situations denounced and compiled concern acts of physical violence (80%), followed by cases of psychological violence (14.6%), harassment (5%) and sexual violence (0.4%).
The situations reported are also committed, in the vast majority, by students rather than by work colleagues or parents.
“It creates heaviness, it creates exhaustion and it also creates fear,” lists Mr. Pronovost, who notes that his members are greatly shaken by the violence they suffer from students, sometimes on a regular basis. “When we go to work, you like me, we don’t expect to have a chair pulled out. Why do we accept it in education? », Says the union representative, who affirms that some of its members suffered “concussions” due to the violence to which they were victims in the context of their work.
Overrepresented jobs
Jobs that are in direct contact with students are also over-represented in the compiled figures. Among these, we include special education technicians, who are experiencing a rapid increase in acts of violence against them, as well as school educators, attendants for disabled students and student supervisors.
“Special education technicians are often those who work in classes of students in difficulty,” notes Éric Pronovost, to explain the significant number of incidents that they have suffered in recent years. “They are often the ones who respond to situations of violence and disorganization” that can arise in a school, he emphasizes.
In this context, “we will have to propose solutions” so that violence ceases to be a scourge in the province’s schools, insists Éric Gingras, who intends to submit some to the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, during of the next few months. “These figures are striking. But the most important thing is what happens next. »