Hundreds of workers' compensation claims for assaults against teachers

Hundreds of Queensland teachers were attacked by students and parents last year, amid a 64 per cent surge in workers' compensation claims for assaults.

In 2017-18, there were 257 WorkCover claims made following assaults against teachers and 140 against other staff.

There were almost 400 WorkCover claims for assaults against teachers and other school staff in 2017-18.Credit: Shutterstock

That is up from 157 for teachers and 94 on other staff in 2014-15.

Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates said teachers were facing violence from parents and students.

"It's across a spectrum – it can be verbal abuse, it can be physical assaults, but it's also the impact of online violence," he said.

"We're seeing an increasing number of incidents of school employees being subjected to vile abuse by members of the community, many of whom have no relationship to the school whatsoever.

"Because that's the culture that's developed around social media that there's a sense of anonymity that makes people feel that they can do and say things that they would never say to their face."

But Mr Bates said it was not necessarily a bad thing for the number of claims to increase as teachers and staff should be encouraged to report abuse.

"The more reports that are received, the greater knowledge there is about the scope of the problems," he said.

Central Queensland had the biggest spike, with claims for assaults up 145 per cent, while the Metropolitan region, which covers Brisbane, had a 64 per cent increase.

For the first eight months of 2018-19, there have already been more WorkCover claims for assaults on teachers (182) and other staff (107) than the total number reported in 2014-15.

LNP Education spokesman Jarrod Bleijie said there was a "frightening increase" in the number of assaults on teachers and other school staff since Annastacia Palaszczuk became Premier.

"Teachers and school staff have such an important role in the lives of young Queenslanders and they deserve respect," he said.

"They don't deserve to be treated like punching bags.

"Schools need to be safe learning environments for our teachers and students."

Education Minister Grace Grace said violence against teachers and school staff was simply not acceptable.

"Our teachers, principals and school staff deserve the same courtesy as every other Queensland worker," she said.

"They should not fear being assaulted at work either by students or others."

Ms Grace said the government had no tolerance for violence against staff and had introduced a Respect our Staff, Respect our School program.

"This is an awareness program which empowers staff to call out violent or abusive behaviour in the school setting," she said.

Ms Grace said $31.1 million over four years was being spent to deliver four regional centres of learning and wellbeing and she also recently announced several principal health and wellbeing initiatives.

She said any act of violence against a teacher or WorkCover claim was a concern but only a small number were made each year.

"The total number of WorkCover claims for acts of violence in 2017-18 represents approximately 0.5 per cent of the total workforce," she said.

It comes after Brisbane Times reported students as young as eight were being banned from classrooms after violent, disruptive behaviour.

Almost 11 Prep and Year 1 students are suspended from Queensland schools every day, while the number of suspensions slapped on unruly and violent five-year-olds more than doubled in the three years to 2017.