QUEEN'S PARK — The Official Opposition's Emergency Safe Schools Plan, supported by education labour leaders, aims to address the growing and urgent problem of school violence and make this year a safe school year.
Kids and the caring adults who support them deserve a safe environment that promotes learning, but this year is picking up where things left off in June, with classrooms disrupted daily and behaviours like kicking, hitting, biting, and throwing objects part of the everyday routine of school. It’s not normal for students to have to dodge flying items or watch their beloved teacher take a punch.
The government's cuts to education funding have led to larger class sizes, fewer EAs and support staff, a shortage of mental health professionals, and cuts to special education supports and programming. This is leaving many of our children unsupported, and an unsupported child is a frustrated child.
Every worker in Ontario deserves a safe workplace. Our passionate educators show up every day wanting to do the best they can for our children. They shouldn’t have to suffer physical or psychological injuries from doing that work. They shouldn’t have to show up in Kevlar. The government needs to step up with the funding and the regulatory changes to make sure they stay safe at work.
The Official Opposition called on the government to immediately implement an Emergency Safe Schools Plan that:
- Provides funding to hire additional qualified staff for our schools, including mental health professionals, qualified education assistants, child and youth workers, and other education workers;
- Provides funding for comprehensive training for all workers and supervisors, including training on rights and responsibilities, conflict resolution and de-escalation, and managing difficult behaviours;
- Creates a sector specific regulation for the education sector under the Occupational Health and Safety Act that takes into account the unique nature of the workplace, such as the regulations that already exist for the health care sector and industrial establishments;
- Requires that school board Workplace Violence Policies use a single, common definition of violence based on the Occupational Health and Safety Act that also includes physical harm that does not require medical attention, as well as psychological harm;
- Creates a permanent, tri-partite Provincial Health and Safety Working Group to review and adapt current government policies regarding workplace violence in the education sector on an ongoing basis;
- Change the Occupational Health and Safety Act to require that multi-workplace Joint Health and Safety Committees are established at the school board level, and site-specific committees are encouraged in order to discuss and address site-specific health and safety concerns;
- Includes in the sector specific regulations a requirement that school board Workplace Violence Prevention Plans and Programs must be developed in consultation with the Joint Health and Safety Committee;
- Creates a single, province-wide online reporting system to ensure uniformity and allow for the collection of data to better understand school violence and guide policy responses; and
- Requires the Ministry of Labour to produce a fulsome report summarizing the data and findings of any compliance initiative or operation regarding workplace violence in the education sector, such as the 2023 Workplace Violence Compliance Initiative.
Background:
- 77% of ETFO members have personally experienced or witnessed violence against an educator
- 75% of OSSTF members say that incidents of violence have increased since they started working in the school system
- In 2022-23, there were 4000 reported incidents of violence in just one school board (the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board), according to COPE. This represents just a portion of the violent incidents since many workers have given up on filing reports.
- According to WSIB injury claims statistics, teachers and education workers are second only to police and firefighters in filing workplace injury claims.
- Per-student funding for education in Ontario has declined by $1,500 per student since 2018 after inflation is taken into account.