It's time to confront Canberra's shameful record of school violence

Schools have been limping along this term, as COVID-19 cases rage across the territory leaving already short-staffed schools in a dire situation.

The community was shocked that one Tuggeranong high school was described as "like a war zone only worse" when WorkSafe ACT inspectors visited last week and had to be partially shut down because of an imminent risk to health and safety.

Even more damning was the fact that members of the Australian Education Union at this school had raised concerns about teaching excessive hours in oversized classes through a formal industrial dispute in July last year.

More resources were sent to the school and the Education Directorate insists it was fully staffed at the beginning of this year.

It also insists the school was given priority for a central pool of casual staff when teachers inevitably were absent.

Evidently, this was not good enough.

Escalating violence in schools is a direct result of an underlying teacher shortage.

But it is also not a new problem.

In 2019 a parliamentary committee investigated violence in schools after The Canberra Times revealed horrible accounts of schoolyard bullying and attacks.

Three years on, it appears little has changed.

The Australian Principals Occupational Health and Wellbeing survey 2021 results once again showed the level of disrespect towards ACT school leaders.

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The ACT has the worst rates of physical violence against principals in the country; 57 per cent of ACT principals reported an instance of physical violence compared to 39 per cent of principals nationally.

The ACT also comes in second place behind Tasmania for reports of threats of physical violence towards principals, at 55 per cent.

The public school teachers union sounded the alarm on occupational safety last year, releasing damning figures on workplace incidents and a survey which found 91 per cent of respondents believed workforce shortages were negatively affecting their school.

It is plainly incorrect to say that violence is rare in ACT schools.

Whether it's classed as a critical incident or lower level verbal abuse, the daily attacks that teachers have to endure are not acceptable.

Teachers are tough people. They are passionate about making a difference and they want to do right by their students and their families.

They were rightly concerned at the beginning of the year that COVID-19 would place even more pressure on the staff. A plan was drawn up with the union on how to handle high levels of staff absences - including the option of remote schooling.

Nobody wants to go back to endless remote learning. But we also don't want teachers to suffer burnout and physical and psychological injuries so that they leave the profession in the middle of a nation-wide shortage of educators.

Something must change.

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