SMOL: Teachers and their unions partly responsible for epidemic of violence against teachers

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Today, four years after deciding to retire from a 27-year career in teaching, I am proud to have the self-respect to say that I do not deserve this abuse.

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As my profession quickly degenerated into a toxic moral pit of unchecked violence and harassment against teachers, this former Army veteran no longer felt safe and protected. It was time to move on to the real world of business, where I can actually expect protection from violence and harassment.

And, if recent media and comments from former colleagues are any indication, the epidemic of violence against teachers is getting worse.

The finger of blame points in every possible direction. But, at the end of the day, we have to recognize that only teachers and their union (not principals, politicians or parents) can decide when teachers are truly fed up with workplace violence and harassment. And, frankly, it hasn’t happened yet.

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Today’s generation of weak, undisciplined principals, frightened of their parents and determined to be best friends with behaviorally violent students, deserves much of the blame. However, the fundamental institutional hypocrisy of the teaching profession is that too often today’s teachers will tolerate a level of harassment and violence from students that they would never remotely authorize from anyone. doing the same outside of school.

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Teaching is probably the only profession in Canada where young students (some as young as 18 or 19) can commit acts of violence and harassment against their teachers without facing any real consequences. Their easily obtainable status as behavioral students, combined with our schools’ progressive discipline policy, will almost guarantee that they are immune from liability when attacking or harassing teachers or teaching assistants at school.

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And it was almost too much hypocrisy for me to bear when I saw smart, highly educated female colleagues teaching and talking sickly about the need to end violence against women while tolerating advances. violence and sexual harassment from 16 to 19 years old. one-year-old male college students with excuses like he’s probably having a bad day or maybe I caused the violence myself. And my all-time favorite, I need to better understand his emotional needs.

Yes, that certainly sounds like something my generation of great-great-great-great-grandmothers might have said when men thought it was their right to hit and slap women in the 1820s. But in 2023, this de facto rationalization of violence against our predominantly female profession is alive and thriving.

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So what about the union? Anyone familiar with my previous writings on labor issues and my work as a union representative knows how strongly I believe in unions. But sometimes, when you sincerely believe in an institution’s goals, you are ethically bound to expose its shortcomings.

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And when it comes to tackling the epidemic of violence against teachers, the union is left behind. Their flamboyant and combative rhetoric aside, union support for student assaults and harassment of teachers invariably dilutes into a tangle of often lukewarmly articulated abstract legal fog with far too many duties, powers and means.

As I can personally attest, this is especially true if the student has been identified and granted behavioral student status. What is missing is a firm commitment by the teachers’ union to the regulatory imperatives, absolute duties and wills that, outside of teaching, are the norm when setting guidelines against violence and harassment. employees.

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Overall, the typical teacher union response best comes down to soothing, pain-relieving care. The union will passively try to help ease teachers’ physical or mental pain. But, they will ultimately not confront the cause.

So, on the test of resistance to violence against teachers by students, I would grade principals and most teachers with an F and a D, respectively. Unions, on the other hand, deserve a C- with maybe a B- for effort.

And this from a teacher who had a reputation for being a fair and easy scorer.

Robert Smol has written extensively on education, advocacy, and veterans’ issues. He now works as a security professional, freelance writer and paralegal while completing a doctorate in military history. He can be reached at [email protected].

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