Report incidents for August violence audit

By Joan Lemaire

The Federation chose the month of August to target violence against teachers.

Members need to report all incidents of violence against teachers including verbal abuse and threats, physical assault, continued harassment and malicious damage to property.

The union needs all teachers, including those in special education, to fill in the incident reports and ask the Federation Representative to send these reports to the District Superintendent and Federation.

Federation will use these reports to demonstrate the types and extent of violence against teachers. They will not be used to take up individual issues but to make the Department of Education and Training (DET) develop a system-wide response to violence.

At present the DET denies that violence is an issue and downplays the impact on teachers. Unless violence is recorded, DET will continue to ignore the problem.

Federation will be able to use these reports as evidence of the need for more resources, training and staff. This will ensure that teachers are protected and that DET meets its occupational health and safety obligations.

Federation Representatives have copies of the violent incident reports or they can be downloaded.

Please ensure that all reports on violent incidents in August are sent to Federation and district superintendents by September 8.

Joan Lemaire is an Industrial Officer.

For further information

August 2003 contents