Criminalising teacher abuse

Warning: this article contains material that some readers may find confronting

A roundtable bringing together the [Australian Education Union], other major [teacher and principal associations], major [education employers], and [education departments] has agreed to work to establish a…[teachers’ and school leaders’] safety council to address the rising incidence of…abuse and violence.

The roundtable also agreed to:

• Work on further steps designed to prevent [teacher] abuse and violence
• Develop a funding model for enhanced public awareness campaigns
• Advocate jointly for further law reform to address assault of [teachers and school leaders]
• High quality and effective training for all [teachers and school leaders]
• Develop informed support to reduce the impact of trauma on [teachers and school leaders]

A survey…found that 76 percent had experienced regular verbal abuse over the past 12 months while 12.5 percent had suffered physical violence – a 50 percent jump since a similar survey just two years ago.

In response, the South Australian and New South Wales governments have criminalised [teacher and principal] abuse and violence.

Imagine this, if you will…because it’s complete fiction. This hasn’t happened. And it seems quite unlikely to.

But it has happened for other employees.

The modified text above is from a media release dated 10 November 2023 by the Australian Retailers’ Association in reference to the appalling abuse suffered by retail employees. It surfaced again this week as a discussion point ahead of the Black Friday sales and in the lead-up to the Christmas shopping season.

It was hard to ignore the uncomfortable comparison.

Inappropriate threats and violence towards retail employees have been met, rightly so, with stiff legislative penalties in South Australia and New South Wales. Retail associations in those states hope there will be a nationally consistent approach soon in all jurisdictions.

And the substance of the legislation is stringent and compelling. For example, the New South Wales Parliament resolved that:

A person who assaults, throws a missile at, stalks, harasses or intimidates a retail worker in the course of the worker’s duty, although no actual bodily harm is caused to the worker, commits an offence. Maximum penalty—imprisonment for 4 years.

Four years!

Muse on that, for a few moments, in relation to our great profession, our vocation.

While the incidence of missile throwing might be relatively low across the teaching profession, assault, stalking, harassment, and intimidation are all, regrettably, far too common. And note how this legislation targets intent, not just “actual bodily harm”. How might the behaviour of some parents and caregivers change if its conclusion could be incarceration?!?!

For fear some readers might think this hyperbole, this year’s Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety, and Wellbeing Survey , conducted annually since 2011, noted that:

In the ACT, 73.2?per cent of principals who responded to the survey reported being subjected to physical violence, while 75.6?per cent noted?they had been threatened.[1]

You might have your own adverse experience. I’m sorry to summon such dark memories.

You might bring to mind those whose impact you’ve experienced this week. I’m sorry this valley holds your path.

It shouldn’t be. I wish it wasn’t. Why can’t magic wands, wish fairies, and unicorns be real…and fix this?

What’s happened in these last few years?

Sadly, not much that hasn’t been around for much longer than we care to admit. There is a temptation, from time to time, to assume that the “good old days” were so much better. But that is a slumber of delusion from which we need to awake. On the eve of a report on the Senate inquiry into disruption in schools , it is sobering to reflect that another Senate inquiry nearly 20 years ago concluded:

It is unrealistic to expect that schools alone can provide solutions to a problem which largely finds its roots in the society.

“…in the society”. There it is! This is not a school issue, but a challenge of the human condition. It confronts how we treat others, summons for our consideration what value we hold about “the other”, and prioritises the esteem in which we hold each other. QED, it’s not about me, but my view of you! It’s about “us”.

The voices of our colleagues are clear – while we love our work, we also want to be respected and honoured. It’s not too much to ask, and it doesn’t seem that much different to the needs and hearts of retail workers.

Imagine the conversation if politicians started to advocate for prison terms for abusive and threatening parents and caregivers! No, it may not be the best solution, but it’s a startling question to confront.

Prison sentences seem to grate against the essence of positive community building that characterises good schools, so there’s deep conflict in advocacy for such stricture. Yet, clearly, there is more responsibility we should rightly expect from parents and caregivers .

And while we’re rattling through this conundrum, this week also witnesses a significant anniversary – November 22, 1963. Many will recall it as the day United States of America President John F Kennedy died, a day etched into the minds of so many who either saw footage of the assassination at the time on news broadcasts, or who experienced it through countless documentaries. Hope and possibility seemed lost. Camelot appeared overthrown.

Kennedy’s assassination, though, overshadowed the loss of four luminaries of literature. In that same fateful year, we bade a long goodnight firstly to Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath. More remarkably still, on the very day Kennedy died, the flickering candles of Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis were also extinguished.

Ten years ago, a reflection challenged us to use such a memorial moment “to look inside ourselves, to understand ourselves and our world”. That challenge seems even more poignant in a week of hostage swaps and ceasefires. Huxley’s own “Eyeless in Gaza” seems eerily prescient.

Peace remains aloof.

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[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-20/three-in-four-act-school-principals-subject-to-violence-survey/102119620