Dealing with violence and OH&S in special schools

JOAN LEMAIRE outlines just one of many instances where Federation has supported special schools in addressing violent student behaviours as an OH&S issue.

This case study details how teachers and aides at a special school worked together to come up with occupational health and safety (OH&S) solutions to meet their specific needs. The school requested anonymity on the basis that there has been considerable negative media coverage on violence and their view is that they believe their action resulted in a positive outcome for both staff and students.

The school involved is a small special school with students with mild intellectual disability, many of whom are behaviourally disordered and/or emotionally disturbed. The school had previously been granted an additional teacher above establishment in recognition of the specialist needs, including violent behaviour, but the position was lost in 2002. The school was able to show through their careful documentation of both violent behaviours of students and injuries to staff, that the number of violent incidents and injuries had increased substantially when the position was lost.

Federation members and Public Service Association members conducted a combined union meeting late in term 3. Their resolution stated:
"The members of the NSW Teachers Federation and the NSW Public Service Association at [name of school] are concerned about the violent behaviours of a number of students at the school.

"Staff and students suffered pain and injury as a result of these behaviours.

"There have been a number of incidents where staff and students have had to seek medical attention and counselling for injury, verbal abuse, threats and intimidation eg.

"1. Staff have been:
"*Hit by a branch wielded by a student causing cuts and bruising
"*Punched in the stomach causing trauma
"*Pushed in the back causing whiplash-type pain
"*Threatened by thrown chairs and broken glass
"*Intimidated by threats to attack vehicles
"*Witness to students self-abusing with sharp items

"2. Students have been:
"*Punched in the face causing concussion
"*Threatened with assault during and after school both in person and by phone
"*Assaulted during critical incidents because they did not get away in time
"*Showered by window glass while working in classrooms.

"The OH&S risks are both physical and psychological.

"In our opinion there are insufficient staff to allow effective management of these violent behaviours.

"Up to the year 2002 there was an additional teacher on staff. This meant that proactive strategies for student behaviour management could be effectively used by executive staff through the use of Control Theory/Reality Therapy (CT/RT) plans with students. The extra staff also meant that critical incidents could be diffused speedily.

"Since 2002 staff have to operate in a more reactive process by delivering consequences without appropriate CT/RT intervention because of the need to address a number of incidents at one time. This means that students don't receive adequate education in taking responsibility for their behaviours. This also means that the response time for executive staff to get to incidents has been lengthened. The time taken to defuse serious incidents has also increased because students have had more time to reach a heightened level of anxiety, therefore needing a longer intervention period.

"We are not prepared to tolerate the continuing risks to the physical and psychological health and safety of staff and students.

"We call on the Department of Education and Training (DET) to:
"*Provide an increase to the teaching staff at [name of school] of one permanent teacher position
"*Maintain the current number of teachers' aides special at the school

"If there is no suitable response by the DET, we will meet again to consider appropriate industrial action and/or other action."

Federation supported the staff by writing to DET indicating that the situation was unsatisfactory and unless there was a response suitable to the members, Federation would consider lodging a dispute in the Industrial Relations Commission.

DET responded by sending a Senior Education Officer (SEO) Student Services to discuss the issues and prepare for a risk assessment. A meeting was held with the principal, the Federation Representative, a Federation Industrial Officer and the SEO. It was agreed that a risk assessment would be done on the following basis:

The Federation Representative and the SEO would interview teachers and teachers aides to identify and assess the risks posed by the behaviours and the potential severity of injuries in conjunction with other documentation. They would then work on developing a plan to manage the student behaviours. Release days were provided for the Federation Representative who was replaced by a casual teacher. Another casual teacher replaced individual teachers while they met with the Federation Representative and SEO.

The SEO also followed up on why the "unique and emergent" teacher position had been removed. The result was that this position was reinstated as a casual for term 4 of 2004 and as a permanent position for 2005. The school also retained the current number of teaching aides which was in excess of their entitlement. At this stage the management plan has not been finalised. There has been no increase to class sizes. Federation members are pleased with the progress and have reported a reduction in the number and severity of incidents.

Joan Lemaire is an Industrial Officer.

OH&S and violent student behaviour

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005