Student violence against teachers surges across Australian schools

Fingernails ripped out, fingers slammed in doors and a pregnant teacher kicked are among many of the disturbing incidents happening in schools as students become increasingly violent.

Tens of thousands of teachers are being injured in violent attacks in Australia every year, with reports of fingernails being ripped out and a pregnant teacher kicked in the stomach among the terrifying examples.

Our national investigation, using data from Freedom of Information requests, has uncovered a surge in teacher injuries over the past decade, with kicking, spitting and biting more than doubling in some states.

Almost 80,000 injuries were reported just last year by teachers in South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, a three-fold increase since 2014. Injuries caused by violence and aggression were most common, accounting for 23,000 incidents in 2023.

NSW education bureaucrats have been blasted for not supplying the same self-reported records as other states, with the state’s Shadow Education Minister Sarah Mitchell saying “teachers, students and parents deserve to know what incidents are occurring in our schools”.

However, other FOI data suggests NSW is seeing the same trend, with a 15 per cent increase in teacher injury claims since 2014.

Almost 80,000 injuries were reported just last year by teachers in South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Gez Mulvahil was kicked and had a book thrown at her by a 9-year-old pupil. Picture: Zizi Averill

Former primary school principal Gez Mulvahil, 53, described how she was left physically sore and mentally scarred after being on the receiving end of a violent attack by a nine year old boy in 2021.

She said without warning he kicked her, “used a large book to hit me on the head on one side and a fist on the other”.

“Another hit with the book was deflected when I put my arm up,” Ms Mulvahil said.

After the attack she lost trust in that child and was hypervigilant around him, saying the mental impact of the violence was worse than the physical.

She said pupils showing aggression were getting younger and blamed their behaviour on growing up on screens, with the “flashing lights and quick feedback” meaning they weren’t able to be still and work on something they didn’t necessarily want to do.

A student slammed Norbert Jahn’s finger in a door. Picture: Richard Dobson

Sydney teacher Norbert Jahn suffered a horrific injury when a student slammed his finger in a door at a special education school.

“I had to unlock my own finger out of the door, and it was bent to a 90 degree angle,” Mr Jahn said.

He said the 2016 incident was down to inadequate resources. He has since left that school.

“A pregnant colleague was kicked in the stomach,” he said. “About every week or two a teacher would be spat at, had things thrown at them. One teacher was thrown to the ground. It was just endless.”

Another NSW teacher, who did not want to be named, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after she was attacked by a student on drugs and forced to hold herself up by her fingernails on a wire fence.

“I had a 15 year old boy on my shoulders, just kicking, punching … All the fingernails on my left hand were ripped off and bleeding,” the teacher said of the incident at a special education school in 2020.

In September she was taken to hospital after being hit on the head by a student.

She said she is now “terrified” to return and has been on workers’ compensation since.

ANU senior lecturer and former principal Paul Kidson said the upward trend in violence was “deplorable”.

“What this data speaks to is that things are not being resolved in a positive and constructive manner.”

He said some parents were displaying “uncooperative and aggressive behaviour” and so were their kids.

“This is a societal issue where it’s now okay to yell, shout, ignore and be abusive,” Mr Kidson said.

“How many violent episodes are acceptable? It’s none.”

Theresa Dicke says annual surveys show is a big increase in physical violence in schools. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Associate Professor Theresa Dicke from the ACU said annual surveys of principals from public, independent and Catholic schools showed there had been a 70 per cent increase in physical violence in schools since 2011.

She said there was a “declining respect for authority” in society, blaming Covid, financial pressures and social media, which was “amplifying misunderstanding and conflict and contributing to mental health struggles”.

Education Minister Jason Clare said the reports were disturbing, which was why the government was improving teacher training on managing disruptive classrooms.

“Being a teacher is the most important job in the world and we don’t have enough of them,” Mr Clare said.

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING

A toxic mix of entitlement and social media is to blame for the rise in student violence, according to a principal who was hit on the head with a brick by a 14-year-old pupil high on ice.

President of the Australian Secondary Principals’ Association Andy Mison was working in a state school in 2015, when a student threw a brick at him.

He luckily escaped with just minor injuries.

He was also injured breaking up a fight in 2018 and was “thumped” by a child with autism in 2021.

“I think social media has been a big factor, mainly because it’s been an unregulated environment that our young people have been exposed to for about a decade,” Mr Mison said.

“They’re being influenced by who knows who? The barrage of pornographic material, violent material, hate speech, misogyny; these unregulated environments where kids of 12, 13, 14, can just bully each other.”

He said easy access to screens and pretty much whatever they want from a very young age has allowed this generation of kids a “level of enabling and instant gratification which has flowed through to a sense of entitlement”.

“It’s now okay to be rude to somebody or it’s okay to lash out and, you know, be violent,” Mr Mison said. “I think that there has been a shift in our society and probably a bit of a fragmentation in our sense of community and how we need to look after each other. I think parents are at a loss. I’m a parent myself and it’s hard.”

A toxic mix of entitlement and social media is to blame for the rise in student violence, experts say.

Mr Mison, who backs this masthead’s Let Them Be Kids campaign to ban social media for under 16s, said more stringent limitations on when principals can suspend a student also undermined their authority, at a time when schools are expected to solve all “social ills”.

He said a violent incident “can ripple around the school community” and if kids and teachers see that there’s no consequence for that student, then it undermines the school culture.

“You know, you used to do things like detention or, you know, getting kids to pick up rubbish or other things like that, but those sorts of things are increasingly frowned upon,” Mr Mison said.

“And I think the other thing is that the schools are increasingly vulnerable to complaints from parents. A parent might go to the Human Rights Commission, the media or they might post a comment on social media. These things can have a devastating impact. So, the net result is that one of the few things we’ve got left to us is risk management approaches.”

Originally published as Student violence against teachers surges across Australian schools