Release days won to address violent student behaviour

By Joan Lemaire

Federation has supported a number of special schools in addressing violent student behaviours as an occupational health and safety (OH&S) issue.

This case study shows how a school demanded release time to support in school assessment of its students. The school requested anonymity on the basis that there has been considerable negative media coverage on violence which could be damaging to the positive outcomes achieved.

This school has students who are emotionally disturbed/behaviour disordered and have either mild or moderate intellectual disability.

Federation members at this school were concerned that a number of new students and one or two current students' behaviours were severe and causing injuries to staff and students. They discussed the situation with their Organiser and an Industrial Officer. They felt that they needed support to allow observation and assessment of these students by their own staff so that they could develop improved programs and strategies to control the behaviours.

After a meeting to discuss the issue and determine the appropriate support, a combined union meeting was held which passed the following resolution:

"The Federation and the PSA members at [name of school] are concerned that the inclusion of a number of new students in the school has increased the incidence of violence and challenging behaviours directed at both staff and students.

"Injuries to staff have occurred from repeated incidents of punching, pinching, scratching, biting, kicking, pushing, spitting, articles being thrown (including rocks, balls and sharp objects) and a cricket ball being used as a weapon; resulting in occurrences of pain, bruising, broken skin, twisted fingers and thumbs, increased anxiety and a neck injury, resulting in a WorkCover claim.

"In our opinion there needs to be an assessment of these students and their interaction with others in their class, to develop appropriate intervention strategies and behaviour plans to control the behaviours.

"We have insufficient staff to allow this to occur, although we have staff members who are trained and have the expertise to complete these plans. We request that a casual teacher be appointed to the school for term 4 to provide release for both staff and executive to enable them to conduct a risk assessment of these students' behaviours and develop appropriate management strategies.

"If additional support is not provided by Week 2 Term 4, the members will meet to consider appropriate industrial or other action."

The DET responded by providing 20 release days during term 4. This allowed a teacher to be released to observe and identify and assess the violent behaviours of particular students and work collaboratively with the classroom teachers in developing control strategies to deal with the behaviours of the students.

The process was recorded using a format which was developed by the school with Federation assistance. The strategies will be reviewed and could point to further support being necessary. The Department of Education and Training (DET) has provided additional release days for the review process to occur. The DET has also provided additional "unique and emergent" staffing for 0.1 per week this year.

Joan Lemaire is an Industrial Officer.

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March 2005 contents