Changes to address violent classroom incidents

By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express

Durham District School Board will implement a number of measures to curb classroom violence and are investigating claims by teacher unions that violent incidents in the classroom are on the rise.

Last fall, through a combination of in-school reports and a survey of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario’s (ETFO) 2,700 members in Durham, it revealed more than 300 incidents of violence were reported in regional elementary schools during the 2016-17 academic year.

These reported incidents range from students making threats and throwing objects to physical assaults such as biting, punching and kicking.

In response, the DDSB board of trustees struck an ad hoc committee to prepare a response to ETFO’s claims.

The mandate of the committee was to understand the historical context of violent incidents and reporting in the board system, analyze current data, identify current trends and how DDSB is currently addressing the issue of violence in the classroom.

After meeting during the first five months of this year, the committee presented its final report to the board at the latest meeting.

The board has made five specific recommendations.

DDSB previously developed an online self-reporting tool for staff who have experienced violence.

This data is used to provide immediate support to staff and report on incident trends.

However, the committee identified the need for a “more responsive way to see and sort through the data” which was described as being “quite complex.”

The board will develop a new ‘incident data dashboard’.

This dashboard will create a graphical interface of incident data, which is anticipated to make it easier to identify trends, patterns, and areas of improvement.

Board staff will now provide annual reports on violent incidents to trustees, consistent with annual reporting of suspension and expulsion data.

New flowcharts will also be used to clearly outline methods for monitoring incident reports and actions to be taken in response.

DDSB’s administrative officer of safe schools will now be involved from the beginning when an employee submits a report.

Incidents will now be classified into one of two levels to differentiate the response.

There will also be consideration whether the student involved in the incident has special needs.

Two pilot projects have also resulted from the committee’s recommendations.

The board will revise its the allocation of its education assistants (EA), with all of the allocations to be completed by the end of June with extra support being provided to kindergarten classes in an eight-week block.

In the past, some September EA positions were left unassigned in June to allow for the accommodation of students with significant needs that come into the board over the summer.

The new model will use the eight-week block beginning from the first day of school.

Specialized training will be provided to the EAs, who will provide support to teachers in the classroom.

EAs placed into the pilot program will be relocated into the board’s system for the remainder of the year.

Lastly, the board’s special education department has partnered with Grove School and Lakeridge Community Support Services to create a pilot treatment class for students with complex needs.

These students require comprehensive treatment to respond to behaviour that can potentially be a serious risk to themselves or others and have needs that cannot be addressed by current programs offered by DDSB.

The class will see specially trained staff working with small groups of students.

Together, they will work towards specific goals that the committee says will be “adaptive” and will allow them to meet Ontario curriculum expectations.

Placements in the class are intended to be short-term with a goal of increasing the likelihood of a successful transition into other special education classes.