What it’s like to be a teacher: ‘I’d go in knowing every day I was going to get hurt’

A current Queensland teacher has given a first-person account of the abuse she and her colleagues suffer, saying some of them vomit in carparks on arrival before stepping foot in a classroom.

Despite spending more than 20 years inside a classroom a current teacher still fears walking in to teach knowing she’s likely be physically assaulted.

The Queensland primary school teacher, Leslie – which is not her real name – said she had been choked, punched, kicked, bitten, had furniture thrown at her from children as young as prep level.

Leslie said teachers only wanted to educate and help students but said they were faced with an impossible job that was progressively getting more violent year on year.

“I’d go in knowing every day I was going to get hurt,” Leslie said.

“You might just be walking past, talking to their friend, you never knew what would trigger the child that day.

“If you have a child melting down and they keep attacking you. You’d go in thinking what can I do to avoid it.

“Sometimes they get sent home, occasionally suspended, but it’s very hard to be expelled from primary school.”

Leslie said teachers were “burnt out” and copping physical abuse so bad it caused them to vomit in carparks on arrival before stepping foot in a classroom.

Leslie and colleagues would trade “war stories” at annual teacher conferences – alarming incidents she said would shock the general public.

“People don’t have a clue. And you’re made to feel like this is all our fault,” she said.

Leslie said the emotional stress kept her awake at night.

“Parents writing horrible things on social media about you, sometimes your name or your role, emails with false accusations, it just creates trauma,” she said.

“Teachers live for their students but this is getting too much.”