Surge in violence against school principals

One psychiatrist is warning Australia has some of the most poorly behaved classrooms in the world amid new data on violence against school principals.

School principals are ­experiencing more violence and an increasing amount of threats from students and parents while a leading psychiatrist has warned the nation has some of the most poorly behaved classrooms in the world.

The 2021 Australian Principal Occupational Health and Wellbeing Survey found 39 per cent of principals said they had been subjected to physical violence, up from 27.3 per cent a decade ago.

The Australian Catholic University’s report also found 44 per cent of school leaders have been subjected to threats of violence – more than five times the general population.

Psychiatrist and author Tanveer Ahmed said Australia had some of the highest rates of behavioural disturbance in schools in the OECD countries —which was due in part to the fact schools were shying away from punitive disciplinary actions like detention.

“The reality is that some kids are really quite difficult but any kind of punitive behaviour management you can think about as stigmatised,” he said.

“Increasingly what happens is you have this underclass of behaviourally disturbed kids.”

He said parents were choosing to send their kids to private schools because they believed there was better behaviour management and teachers were given more authority.

“Part of the public- private school divide is that a lot of parents think the teachers are spending too much time dealing with difficult kids but without the powers to actually manage them and my kids they are not getting the attention they should have,” he said.

“This is one of the unspoken things that happen when people shift their kids away from public schools.”

New data shows an increase in the amount of threats towards school principals.

Researcher Paul Kidson said the survey revealed the second highest rate of violence since the survey started in 2011.

“At this rate, half of all school leaders will endure physical ­violence by 2025,” he said.

“What shouldn’t come with the territory is that kind of intimidatory behaviour … this is an example to our young people which is really unhealthy.”

“Families and some members of the community that do this also have the responsibility to be part of the solution — it is inadequate to say because these parents are going to be violent, we need to put a police officer in the school.”

The study surveyed 2590 school leaders across all states and territories and found 32.5 per cent of NSW principals had been physically assaulted while 37.2 were threatened.

Some are even threatened by members of the public with no link to their school.

NSW Secondary Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said unfortunately he did not find the high rates of physical violence surprising because parents – as well as students – were now more likely to ­become physical.

“It seems to be once you walk through the school gate it becomes acceptable to threaten and abuse and assault people,” he said. “It can be when teachers or principals are trying to intervene in a fight ­between students and they get pushed, kicked or sometimes punched.”

He said there needed to be more support with early interventions for families embroiled in gang violence, drug use and family breakdowns.

“We need to reinforce the concept that the standards in society are expected within the school gates and we need to make sure we have the resources available to improve the behaviour of students and adults on site so we’re not getting to a point of violent and aggressive behaviour,” he said.

The survey also found 29 per cent of principals were experiencing high or very high risk to their mental health.