Attacks on SA principals by parents and students hit record high
SOUTH Australian principals are facing surging rates of assault from parents and students, with figures reaching a record high and the most serious incidents putting school leaders in hospital.
SOUTH Australian principals are facing surging rates of assault from parents and students with figures reaching a record high.
The proportion of SA principals who were victims of workplace violence last year rose from 24 per cent to 36 per cent — the worst result the state has recorded in the six years of a long-term national study.
Parents were responsible for about a third of attacks.
Primary principals have called for more school counsellors and funding for more deputy and assistant principal positions, to give them support in violent situations and ease their workload.
The study’s author, Associate Professor Philip Riley from Australian Catholic University, said the rates of violence were “way too high”.
“Anecdotally it’s everything from kids biting and scratching and kicking, through to extremely dangerous incidents where principals end up in hospital, and that’s usually caused by a parent,” he said.
The study was based on surveys of more than 5200 principals, including 502 from SA, across all school sectors.
Prof Riley said violence was just as prevalent in independent and Catholic schools as public ones, the only difference being that private schools could more easily expel violent students.
The 36 per cent of SA principals attacked last year was well above the six-year average of 31.5 per cent, and worse than figures from Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
WA, Tasmania and the territories had higher rates of violence.
SA Primary Principals Association president Pam Kent said teachers often called on principals for help when students were “yelling and screaming” and “throwing things around, turning chairs and tables over”. The violence then continued in the principal’s office.
Ms Kent said some parents were not teaching children any disciplinary boundaries before they started school.
She said parents who believed they had the right to tell school staff how to do their jobs, combined with growing financial and social pressures on families, resulted in mums and dads losing their tempers and becoming violent.
Nationally, school leaders in regional areas were more at risk than those in the city. Principals who were victims of violence were most likely to experience it “a few times a year”, though a growing minority were attacked monthly or even weekly.
In SA, the proportion of principals threatened with violence rose from 37 per cent in 2015 to 43 per cent last year, though that was lower than some previous years.
Prof Riley said primary school parents and high school students were most likely to threaten violence.
He said a “whole of government response” was needed to determine and address the root causes of the “entrenched” problem of school violence.
SA Education Department executive director for school and preschool improvement, Anne Millard, said the State Government was consulting on proposed legislative changes “to ensure schools are safe environments for all staff in government and non-government schools”.
“(They include) tougher penalties for people who behave in an offensive manner on school premises and use abusive, threatening or insulting language, with fines up to $2500,” she said.
“Violence in schools should not be tolerated and every student, teacher and principal has the right to feel safe.”
The department said schools could already issue “prohibition notices” to bar parents from school grounds, and they could be enforced by police. Police were also called when there was an “immediate threat” of violence.
STATE BY STATE BREAKDOWN