School principals face daily threats from students, parents

School principals are being forced to call in security as many are bashed and threatened by violent students and parents.

Exclusive: Scared and stressed school principals are being bashed and threatened by violent students and parents, with one in 15 planning to retire this year, a shocking new survey reveals.

Forty per cent of principals were exposed to violence or threats of violence- a risk nine times greater than the general population – on average across Australia in 2020.

And 83 per cent reported “offensive behaviour’’, including bullying and slander, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago.

A Queensland high school principal said students had “struck’’ two deputy principals over the past year.

“I can actually feel scared on some days … and days when I am ‘on edge’ has increased this year,’’ he told the landmark new survey by education researchers from the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and Deakin University.

A public high school teacher in Sydney said that “heightened levels of family conflict and mental health issues for students have made it tough’’.

A Catholic primary school principal in NSW, due to retire at the end of this year, said her job had “given me immense joy but also heartbreak, exhaustion, frustration and even anger’’.

Australian Principal President and school principal Tina King. Picture: Australian Catholic University

ACU Professor Herb Marsh said researchers had sent three out of 10 school leaders a “red flag’’ email alerting them to contact employee support services, after their survey responses identified risks of self-harm, occupational health problems or serious impacts on their quality of life.

Deakin University Professor Phil Riley said 2020 had been a year of “unimaginable horrors’’ due to COVID-19, bushfires and floods.

As school leaders struggle with stressed families, kids’ charity Save the Children is calling on the federal government to start NAPLAN-style depression and anxiety testing for student wellbeing.

The Productivity Commission’s mental health report last year called on schools to measure and monitor student “wellbeing’’, as well as academic performance.

Save the Children executive director of Australian services Matt Gardiner said wellbeing test results should be made public, at a school-by-school level, so parents can see how students are coping and governments know where to send support.

“The past 12 months have put significant pressure on children’s mental health and wellbeing,’’ he said.

Australian Primary Principals Association president Malcolm Elliott.

Australian Primary School Principals Association president Malcolm Elliott threw his support behind wellbeing checks, as “happy children are better learners’’.

He said principals were having to deal with parents, as well as children, suffering from “mental health issues’’ that have worsened during the pandemic.

“It’s not uncommon for schools from time to time to resort to extra security,’’ he said.

“We have people who think you resolve conflict with a strong show of force.’’

Australian Principals Federation Victorian president Tina King said school staff were being defamed and abused in social media “pile-ons’’.

“Some parents are not raising concerns directly with the schools, but are venting on online forums and embellishing their concerns, and other parents join in,’’ she said.

Ms King said a drunken parent had pushed her over when she was six months pregnant, about 20 years ago, as she tried to usher children to safety.

Former Principal Jeanne Bathgate.

“Our duty of care is to protect the children and unfortunately to do that, sometimes we put ourselves at risk,’’ she said.

Recently retired Sydney principal Dr Jeanne Bathgate said she had become caught up in “neighbourhood squabbles that overflowed into the school ground’’ at a semirural high school.

But at the academically selective Baulkham Hills High School in Sydney, which Dr Bathgate led for 13 years before retiring this month, she found a “large number of Asian parents who were very respectful about education and educators, and more likely to argue about things like half a mark for their child.’’

Originally published as School principals face daily threats from students, parents