Trustee Responses 3

As a trustee, how will you support educators facing increasing levels of violence in schools?

Fred Robertson

Sadly, violence in schools seems to have been increasing in recent years.  In response to this, there are two important documents available to not only help prevent violence from occurring but also to address it should a violent incident occur.  These documents are the WorkSafe BC legislation regarding Violence in the Workplace and the Collective Agreements negotiated between teachers and the School District and Province and the Collective Agreement with support workers.  The Legislation and Collective Agreements provide a very concrete path to prevent violence in schools, and to address it should it occur.    The role of the School Board is to ensure the established process is followed and to ensure the School District fulfills its obligations.

Laurie Garret

I think that schools should be a safe workplace for our staff free from physical, verbal and social media assaults. We are striving to create healthy, supportive and positive learning experiences for students with a caring staff in trying times. Our goal should be to build community engagement around respectful behavior for educators, families and students. 

Roland LeFort

The answer is different between students and the adults either in a caregiver or community members interacting with staff.

For Students: Each student will have different needs, so we will want to prioritize employee safety while still providing for the student as best as possible. For aggressive students without medical/mental complications, remote learning options should be explored and implemented, to provide a safe educational option, with gradual reintegration should it be deemed safe for staff and other students.

For Adults: Bullying and Harassment should have a zero tolerance with regards to knowing adults. Not only is it severely detrimental to the wellbeing of staff and students, but it is in direct violation of the Worker’s Compensation Act. Our job is to ensure the health and safety of staff and students, and enforcing not only SD85 policies, but provincial acts to promote safety in the workplace should be our default.

Jeff Field

The Board and senior management have to work with our partner groups to ensure our employees can work in a violence free workplace. Trustees have to support programs like self-regulation that help students control their behaviour so they can concentrate on their learning. We also have access to outside specialists that can come into our district to help students with behavioural issues. It is important that we maintain good working relationships between our HR staff and the union representatives to help address the issue. One way is through contract negotiations. When criminal activity is involved, we can ask the RCMP to investigate.

Christine Swain

Children and youth that feel they belong, that they are heard, and that they are cared for are less likely to act out towards staff and other students. When school staff feel that they have the resources, support and capacity to respond to student needs and behaviours in a caring and connected way, they would be more able to prevent many of the violent incidents they are facing now. Not only are many of our students dis-regulated, many of the staff, understandably, are feeling overwhelmed and dis-regulated. This is why it is critical to increase resources for schools and equip staff with what they need to feel good about the job that they are doing.

As your School Board Trustee, I will support measures that hold those behaving aggressively or violently towards school district staff accountable when prevention efforts are not enough. Though this may look different depending on the specific situation, it is the responsibility of the school district and the board to ensure we uphold our values and protect all people in our schools.

Leightan Wishart

Every employee deserves to come to work in a safe environment and return home safely at the end of the day. Student safety and employee safety are not competing priorities — they are connected.

As a trustee, I would support strong violence-prevention policies, appropriate staffing and training, timely reporting and follow-up of incidents, and appropriate supports for both students and employees.

We also need to distinguish between supporting a student who is struggling and accepting violence or abuse toward staff. A student may need significant intervention and support, but that does not mean educators should be expected to tolerate unsafe behaviour.

The same standard should apply to adults. Disagreements with educators, administrators or trustees must be handled respectfully. Verbal abuse, threats and harassment — whether in person, by email or through social media — should not be considered an acceptable part of working in public education.

WorkSafeBC recognizes workplace violence as an important health and safety issue in K-12 schools and emphasizes prevention, reporting, response and reassessment of practices. I would continue to support our staff, listen to their concerns and ensure that safety issues receive the attention they deserve at the board table.