Threats, physical gestures, harassment: stakeholders in the education sector are sounding the alarm over the increase in teachers who are victims of violence from students or parents.
“A teacher who was kicked, bitten, spat on […] [Des insultes comme] “my bitch”, “big whore”. The intensity increased, the frequency […]it’s made worse than ever. Work stoppages linked to cases of assault […] There are some, it’s crazy!” says Marjorie Racine, primary school teacher on the South Shore.
Photo provided by Marjorie Racine
The dozen primary and secondary teachers we spoke to and the Fédération des centers de services scolaire du Québec (FCSSQ) made the same observation: the number of cases of physical and psychological violence is dangerously increasing.
The situation is so worrying that the Minister of Education has asked school service centers to record violent events starting this fall.
For now, existing data comes from local unions. According to the Union of Champlain, in Montérégie, approximately 67% of the 2023-2024 accident reports completed by teachers concerned students who had been violent.
According to the Grand-Portage Education Union, in Rivière-du-Loup, one in five teachers in 2023-2024 said they suffered physical violence from students and one in two teachers from psychological violence. In Estrie, in 2022, 42% of teachers were victims of an act of violence compared to 35% in 2018.
A special education teacher in the metropolitan region, for example, had to be absent from work for several months after being hit by a “good-sized” elementary school student. “He hit me on the temple several times […] I started not feeling well, I collapsed,” said the employee, who had a concussion and who must remain anonymous because she is not authorized to speak to the media.
The student in question also attacked his peers and other staff members. “Any annoyance could lead to an act of violence. It was documented, the service center had put resources in place […]but despite everything, we could not prevent acts of violence,” she said.
The student was then transferred to another school in the same school service center where he, once again, was violent before finally being transferred to a school in another region.
He threatens to attack his teacher
A high school teacher from Montérégie also says he had a problem with a student who had been transferred to his class mid-year. Because he “did not agree” with an evaluation, he allegedly threatened to attack his teacher on Teams.
“It implied that there would be physical harm. I wanted to file a complaint with the police. Unfortunately […]he implied that he was going to do something, but as he did not name him, I could not go any further,” says the experienced teacher whose identity must also be kept quiet for fear of retaliation from management or the young person in question.
The student would then have been changed groups and attacked the other teacher.
“There was a physical attack on my colleague, he found himself against the wall […] I appointed him to my management, that the behavior had an aggressive tendency […] Is this what we are waiting for to happen? Ultimately, that’s what happened,” he laments.
“Even pattern which repeats itself”
The President and CEO of the FCSSQ, Caroline Dupré, recalls the obligation of public schools to educate all students despite certain events. “If situations arise where, for example, a student has committed a violent act […]there is a ban on contact with another student or a member of staff, another place of schooling must be found. Unfortunately, sometimes the pattern is going to happen again, that’s not what we want and that’s why collaborative work with parents is essential,” she explains.
Photo provided by Caroline Dupré
Threats from parents
But not all parents are role models. Another primary school teacher from Montérégie recounts an ordeal experienced with parents on social networks because they “disagreed” with some of her decisions. “Parents threatened to tell me off, that they risked going to prison if they saw me face to face,” she explains.
Mme Racine adds that some people are indeed more likely to be aggressive in writing. “Messages in big capital letters in the diary are insistent and provocative. Like: “You have no business talking to my child like that, it’s your fault, you provoked him” […] In my time, my parents said: “It’s much better to listen to your teacher.” Now it’s like [certains] parents no longer accepted this form of respect,” she adds.
All the stakeholders interviewed by the QMI Agency wish to reiterate the importance of the parental role. “There is not a teacher in Quebec who has enough time to waste to communicate with parents and inform them of a situation that did not occur at school,” insists M.me Dupré.
The teachers we spoke to also all say that if the events had happened at the start of their careers, they would have jumped ship. “I would have given up teaching, that’s for sure,” said one of them.
The president of the Federation of Education Unions, Richard Bergevin, is asking for a procedure to follow for each establishment in the event of violence. “We can’t just be part of a prevention plan or great advertisements, we must be able to act on the ground. It takes a very, very clear protocol for application in the community so that when such an event occurs, we work on it in such a way,” he said.
Related News :