The attack suffered by a teacher from Laval on Thursday – attacked by her 13-year-old student – testifies to the skyrocketing rise, among school staff, in the number of professional or psychological injuries attributable to violence.
According to data obtained by The Press According to the CNESST, the number of these injuries linked to violence against teachers and professors increased by 64% between 2018 and 2022. The increase is 104% in the category of specialized educators working with people with disabilities, early childhood educators and social workers.
The CNESST reports affecting school service centers – obtained after a request for access to information and largely redacted – illustrate this daily violence. It occurs particularly in classes of students with behavioral or adjustment problems, but not exclusively.
“She claims to have been beaten by a student. She adds that she did not know how to react and says she fears for her safety and that of other students. »
Or: “The student throws objects he has on hand (chair, pencils, books, scissors, desk). He is verbally abusive and kicks. »
In another school: “A student […] hits, slaps, spits, grabs the upper body, verbally abuses and throws objects, among other things. Attempts to attack workers are recurring and unpredictable and have been going on for several months. Workers witness recurring attacks on students. »
Elsewhere: “The student is intolerant of the slightest frustration or annoyance. He becomes reactive and goes very quickly from apparent calm to major disorganization. »
Too trivialized violence
Éric Gingras, president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (which represents teachers in particular), is in no way surprised by all this and he says it outright: the staff so frequently suffer violence on a daily basis that it comes to trivialize it, he regrets.
If a young person [du primaire] bites, for example, we will tend to say that it is because he is young, that he was in crisis, and we do not call the parents.
Éric Gingras, president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec
At primary school, school staff are more exposed to physical violence, he continues. In high school, “it’s more verbal violence, threats like: ‘I’m going to wait for you at your tank after school.’” It doesn’t happen, the student doesn’t do it, but it nevertheless reaches the teacher,” observes Mr. Gingras.
Often, schools crack down “by choosing the worst cases or those whose parents will not complain, those whose parents will not say: “But my child was right!” “.
When staff are exposed to this type of parenting, they end up “handling it internally,” which is far from desirable, says Mr. Gingras, whose union advocates zero tolerance.
Nicolas Prévost, president of the Quebec Federation of Educational Institution Directors, recalls that for classes of young people with known behavioral problems or mental health problems, “the model, in Quebec, is to have 4 speakers for 8 to 10 students.
The specialized teachers and educators in these classes are trained accordingly and, according to Mr. Provost, “the solution is not to add even more staff.”
“The big question,” he says, is: “Can everything be managed by the school?” », noting that certain cases move away from what can be compared to schooling.
“The range of consequences is not that wide”
When it is not a known mental health problem, but occasional crises, do school principals provide sufficient support to teachers? Are there real consequences for young people in these situations?
Certain directions can err at times, agrees Mr. Prévost, but the fact remains that “the range of consequences is not that wide. We can remove the student from class, demand a letter of apology – that’s the minimum –, contact the parents. The furthest we can go is to suspend the student.”
In cases where the student goes completely off the rails, adds Mr. Prévost, “when he does not want to leave the class, when he throws chairs, for example, the room must be emptied”.
Because, as the CNESST reports remind us, if school staff are the first targeted in these situations, other students are at risk and, at the very least, helpless witnesses to this violence.
Like Mr. Prévost, Éric Gingras, who is president of a union in the middle of negotiations, recognizes that except in certain places where shortages may be the cause, the ratios are adequate in specialized classes.
“Technically, there are enough people […], there are policies, codes of conduct, etc. »
On paper, therefore, everything is there. “But the problem of violence often comes from a lack of intervention, both from staff, school administrations and school service centers,” believes Mr. Gingras.
A teacher attacked in the middle of class by her student
A 65-year-old teacher from Laval was attacked in the middle of class Thursday by her student who she asked to change his behavior. Slightly injured in the upper body and having suffered a nervous shock, the teacher was released from the hospital.
The assault occurred at L’Odyssée-des-Jeunes high school. The student (a girl, according to witnesses) was arrested at the scene for assault with a weapon and she was transported to the hospital to have her psychological condition evaluated.
“Other students present in the class had to intervene, and called on the teaching staff to control the suspect,” indicates the Laval Police Department, which could not confirm that scissors were used, as reported. said some young people.
On Radio-Canada, André Arsenault, president of the Laval region teaching union, explained on Friday that he had submitted to the Laval school service center an action plan against violence, which the administration would not have taken note.
Yves-Michel Volcy, general director of the organization, said on air that he did not remember it.
HAS The Presshe said he confused it with another document and met with the union at least twice about it.
Learn more
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- 35.7%
- Percentage of professional injuries attributable to workplace violence that were suffered by teaching professionals
SOURCE: CNESST, 2022 data