South Australian teachers attacked, harassed or suffering mental stress dozens of times a day

SA teachers claim to be attacked, injured, sexually harassed or left suffering mental health stress as official figures show a decade-high rate of problems. See the data.

Amid an exodus from the profession, the teacher’s union called on the state government to develop better workplace safety solutions to protect education staff “in the firing line”. Picture: iStock

Dozens of South Australian educators claim to be attacked, injured, sexually harassed or left suffering mental health stress each day amid a decade-high rate of problems, official figures show.

Education Department data, released under Freedom of Information laws, laid bare surging incidents after authorities received 104,500 formal notices over the past 10 years – 52 a day.

Amid an exodus from the profession, the teacher’s union called on the state government to develop better workplace safety solutions to protect education staff “in the firing line”.

Authorities blamed increasingly complex classrooms on social media, mobile phones and vaping as they urged staff to maintain the “strong reporting culture”.

“All classrooms and schools should be a safe environment and I have zero tolerance for violence or harassment of any kind,” Education Minister Blair Boyer said.

“Staff have a right to feel safe in the workplace and I encourage reporting of issues. It’s one of the ways we can ensure the right supports are in place.”

Education Minister Blair Boyer said he has zero tolerance for violence or harassment. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Analysis of 10 years worth of records show the most common reports involving almost 52,000 staff were “deliberate” injuries against teachers – accounting for a third of all injuries claims and increasing 110 per cent in a decade – mental health “stress” and slips, trips or falls.

The next tranche, involving nearly 23,200 other staff, were for them either being verbally harassed or bullied at work, suffering a traumatic incident or complaints of job pressures.

Physical sexual harassment injury claims have doubled in two years, the data revealed, which the opposition described as “especially troubling”.

Concerns have been raised after 11,828 more teachers reported incidents last year compared to 2014, which was a 71 per cent increase.

The number of reports logged with the department is at a decade high, after more than 14,200 reports last year — which was a third higher than the previous 12 months.

Opposition spokesman John Gardner, a former Liberal education minister, said any such incident was “one too many” as classrooms grapple with workforce challenges.

“It is deeply concerning that teachers, who should rightly expect to be safe in their workplaces, are facing attacks, harassment, and bullying,” he said.

“This is clearly an issue that deserves the government’s attention.”

Australian Education Union president Jennie-Marie Gorman said solutions must “come from the field” as she urged “proactive and effective solutions to ensure that the workplace is safe”.

‘Unfortunately the results … are not a surprise for us or our members,” she said.

“Education staff are in the firing line from students and parents and this causes undue injuries to our members.”

Australian Education Union president Jennie-Marie Gorman called on the government to better protect educators: Picture: supplied

Opposition spokesman John Gardner said the rising number of cases was concerning. Picture: supplied

Mr Boyer said the government had included an autism inclusion teacher in every primary school, $50m mental health funding, a new “respectful relationships” program and banning mobile phones in schools.

He also is lobbying the federal government for full school resource funding that would add an extra $190m to his budget.

“We know that classrooms are much more complex than they were 10, 20 or 30 years ago right across the country,” Mr Boyer said.

“Outside influences such as social media, mobile phones and vaping are all issues teachers now also have to deal with, along with the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy.

“It’s not an issue that can be ignored, which is why … we’ve taken strong action to support students and teachers in the classroom, including implementing a number of significant policy changes.”

Education Department chief executive Martin Westwell said authorities were conscious of the duty of care to 32,000 employees working across 900 sites.

“At all times the safety of our staff is paramount, and we encourage reporting of incidents, no matter how minor,” he said.