Saskatchewan teachers are pointing to a recent study that shows a greater risk of workplace violence and harassment.
According to a University of Ottawa study, 84% of Saskatchewan education sector workers surveyed about the 2022-23 school year experienced at least one act, attempt or threat of physical force; while 87% reported incidents of harassment.
There are no specific stats for Southwest Saskatchewan.
"It's saddening to see that numbers are this high," said Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation president Samamtha Becotte. "I'm not really surprised because what I've been hearing from teachers directly aligned with what has come through this report. We have been raising alarms about the growing levels of violence, aggression, and harassment within schools. (We are) calling on government and school boards to start taking real action that will address the crisis that we're seeing in our schools."
The STF in part blames declining resources for the increased risk.
"We have talked about growing violence and possible reasons for why that is and a lot of the things that we're seeing in our schools with increasing class complexity and the decreasing resources that are available within schools means that student needs aren't being met within classrooms. We have growing class sizes, we have fewer educational assistants, (and) we have fewer professional supports like mental health counselors. A lot of the time students don't have the skills or resources, or the ability to kind of manage those emotions of frustration. Often, they come out in behaviors and sometimes those are violent behaviors.
"We need to really work together as an education sector, along with parents and students, to try and start to address those needs of our individual students and make sure that we have adequate resources available to meet the needs of all students in our school."
Becotte is optimistic arbitration in December on classroom complexity and supports could be a step forward.
"We're still hopeful," Becotte said. "We have classroom complexity and accountability framework going to arbitration which our hearing will be mid-December on that. We are absolutely hopeful that we'll have a decision from the arbitrator that will provide improvements to the classroom environment where we can start improving the amount of supports available for students. And then in terms of violence in the classroom, we did have a proposal put forward within bargaining that unfortunately was sent to a committee. While we're hopeful that there's going to be some advancement of that issue through the committee, it is going to be likely a slow process, or slower process than we would like to see."
We are now in the midst of a provincial election and schoolboard trustee elections are set for next month.
"We have three key asks that we've put out four candidates to consider," Becotte said. "Whether it is those seeking election as an MLA or those seeking election as school trustee, we all play a role within ensuring that students have what they need to be successful in our schools so. Those asks start with restoring and maintaining per student funding back to our 2015-2016 levels when we were first in the country, addressing the increasing classroom complexity that we've been talking about over the last number of years and what we're talking about here today is addressing the increasing levels of violence and aggression within our schools and classrooms.
"We need candidates who are ready to take action on these items. We need school trustees who are committed to improving the experiences of students and teachers within schools, and who will advocate for those local needs."
University of Ottawa researchers surveyed 828 Saskatchewan education sector workers and found:
- Nearly three-quarters of respondents experienced one attempt of physical force from a student.
- 85% witnessed at least one student-initiated act, attempt, or threat of physical force against a co-worker.
- 54% of respondents experienced parent-initiated harassment.
- Women experienced 20 unique acts, attempts, or threats of physical force from a student, whereas men reported an average of 10.
- Identity plays a role: education sector workers with a reported diagnosed mental illness were most often targeted for harassment, as were 2SLGBTQIA+ workers.