EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated on March 8 to include comments from the chair of the Algoma District School Board.
A group of approximately 15 educational assistants, teachers’ aides and custodians employed by the Algoma District School Board organized a meet and greet at The Water Tower Inn on Tuesday evening to inform ADSB trustees about workplace violence in Sault and area schools.
The unions say each of the 11 trustees were personally invited and asked to respond via email by Feb. 29.
None of them attended — and only two replied to state they weren’t able to come, said Shelly Predum, the president of the Algoma Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario.
“It’s disappointing,” Predum told SooToday during the Water Tower event.
However, the school board disputes the unions’ version of events. After this article was published, the chair of the ADSB issued a statement to SooToday saying trustees received an email invitation to an event described as a generic “Meet & Greet. An opportunity to network and socialize."
“Date and time were provided and no further details,” said ADSB chair Jennifer Sarlo. “There was no indication that there was in fact an ‘agenda’ attached to this event. Nor was there any indication that media would be in attendance. As we later learned, media was provided a different email invitation. Again, ADSB Trustees had no knowledge that this in fact was the intent of the ‘meet and greet’ social.”
As SooToday previously reported, a total of 1,271 incidents of workplace violence were reported during the 2022-2023 school year. That’s up from over 900 reported incidents in 2018-2019.
The incidents involve actions by students toward elementary school teachers, secondary school teachers and their support staff.
Approximately 40 unionized support staff attended the ADSB’s Feb. 27 meeting and told reporters afterwards that they have been punched, bitten or kicked by students, many in primary grades.
They added that some students commit acts of violence repeatedly.
“We were hoping that the trustees would come and hear the stories of what is being experienced in the schools so that they could have a better understanding," Predum said on Tuesday. "It’s not just a number. We’re talking about people that are getting hurt."
In her statement to SooToday, Sarlo confirmed that no trustee attended the meet and greet.
“If a group wants to bring a matter to the Board’s attention, we currently have policies and procedures in place that outline the appropriate processes,” she said. “We hold a governance role over the Board and interacting with union leadership as individual trustees, especially during the current period of ongoing union negotiations, would be crossing into operational matters and not considered a good governance practice for any Board of Directors.”
“There are certainly other avenues for the Board to receive information (i.e. Letter addressed to the Board),” she continued. “Our oversight would include having policies and procedures in place to protect the health and well-being of our students and staff and we make budget decisions that are designed to meet those needs. The Board takes matters of safety of its students and staff seriously.”
At Tuesday's event, the workers emphasized that they want to see children who commit violent acts receive support to help them adjust their behaviour in classrooms.
“Staff want to help these children but staff are not the ones with power, they’re not the ones making the decisions and the policies and the programs,” Predum said.
“Our trustees are elected officials and they represent community members. They want to know that their children are going into a safe environment and they want to know what’s being done to keep those children safe. The trustees have to answer for that.”
Predum said that parents of children who commit violent acts toward educators also want to see plans in place to help their children change their behaviour.
“What our members experience is what the children experience. Elected representatives should certainly be aware of that,” said Jason Young, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 2 Algoma Teachers’ Bargaining Unit president, during The Water Tower event.
There have also been some incidents of violence toward custodial staff in schools, said Mike Galipeau, CUPE Local 16 president representing custodial, maintenance and food service workers.
Galipeau said training to recognize triggers of potential violence in students has not been adequate for custodial staff.
“The trustees should have come to the frontline workers and heard our stories, not the stories that administration are telling them at board meetings. It’s a balance and the balance is out of whack right now,” Galipeau said.
The procedure for reporting acts of violence by a child towards staff in schools includes informing the school’s principal and using an online tool to describe a violent incident to the ADSB.
Senior administrative officials at the board devise a safety plan for the child to help him/her to adjust.
Some workers have said they wait for more than a week to meet with principals about violent acts and that safety plans are not improved after such incidents.
“There’s a point where the child has to have some other outside agency’s support out of the classroom that can help them integrate back into the classroom. They need to be removed at some point. Nobody wants to do that. The kid’s removed one day and comes back the very next day,” said Sharon Indrevold, an occasional teacher with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation after the board’s Feb. 27 meeting.
“There has been an erosion of services, an erosion of funding,” Young said at The Water Tower Inn.
“More funding will hire psychologists, social workers. Our goal in education is not to get rid of the kid. That’s no one’s goal in the education system. If the only thing we teach a kid is how to be self regulated then at least we’ve taught them something. We have to have special units.”
“If they don’t get the supports that they need at a young age then it’s going to continue to get worse. If they don’t get the mental health supports or cultural supports that they need how can we expect them to be successful?” Predum said.
Current methods educators use to calm children who commit violent acts include taking the child for a walk outside the classroom, giving the child a toy or stress ball to squeeze or sit in a ‘tent’ where they can relax, Predum said.
“We are your kid’s other family and we want to be part of the solution,” Young said.
“We are doing our best to bring a very serious issue to the public’s attention and the people that didn’t come tonight are the public’s representatives,” Young said after Tuesday’s no-show from trustees.