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A rising number of teacher aides and cleaners say they are being physically and verbally assaulted by students in Queensland schools, with staff warning their safety is being compromised by inadequate training and resources.
Brisbane teacher aide Jake Beeton has had furniture thrown at him and been punched, kicked and spat at by students.
“At my school, we had 80 incidents [involving one child] over a 12-week period last year,” he said.
“These are incredibly distressed kids that we’re dealing with, and it’s hard.”
Beeton said facing violence in the workplace is stressful, emotionally draining, and has impacted his health, but he does not believe children are to blame.
“[It’s] a symptom of the lack of support for the children and the staff.”
Also lacking, Beeton said, is recognition and responsibility “from the department down”, leading him to join a campaign launched by the United Workers Union calling for an end to occupational violence in Queensland schools.
The campaign follows a statewide survey of over 1200 teacher aides and school cleaners by the union that found 81 per cent had experienced occupational violence over their career, with nearly the same amount reporting physical or verbal abuse in the last school year.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said there is “zero tolerance for occupational violence and aggression (OVA) of any kind in schools” and pointed to the allocation of specialist staff, rapid support teams and funding to “stamp out poor behaviour”.
“We will always support and back our teacher aides, cleaners, and school staff against
aggressive and violent behaviour, including reporting to Queensland Police Service where it’s appropriate,” they said.
The majority of respondents to the survey, however, said they did not feel safe returning to work after an incident, and reported poor procedures and management systems, and a lack of professional and psychosocial support.
“We’re doing this job because we love kids, and quite frankly, there’s not much that we get back from it,” Beeton said.
“We’re given extremely challenging roles with no real support.
“There needs to be better training for the staff, more staff and more money.”
To end occupational violence in schools, the union is proposing:
- The establishment of specialist, rapid response teams in schools experiencing repeated incidents
- A shift from reactive incident responses to a prevention-focused behavioural planning system
- Increased mental health support for staff and students
- Practical training focused on proactive behaviour strategies and de-escalation
- Greater engagement with families and community partners in behavioural plans
- The alignment of staffing levels with classroom complexity
- Addressing regional support gaps
Brisbane teacher aide Murphy Baldry fell in love with the vocation eight years ago after a placement at a special education school.
She quickly discovered the pitfalls of the job when she was coward punched by a student on a school camp.
“It knocked me out,” Baldry said. “I was 19 at this point, so I had no idea what to do.
“[When I returned from the camp] no one called me [or] checked on me. I didn’t fill out any forms. I was terrified, and I was just told to carry on.”
Baldry said she’s been strangled with her own necklace, had her head smashed into a brick wall and bus window, and had a student hanging off her hair, damaging her neck and giving her a month-long migraine.
She agrees with Beeton that more training for teacher aides, both in how to de-escalate violence and support students with complex behavioural needs, is desperately needed, alongside financial incentives and the allocation of more staff.
“I’ve worked in the industry for almost eight years, and I only ever got one [de-escalation] training,” she said.
“[Teacher aides] are paid between $30,000 and $50,000 a year … [that’s not] enough to potentially walk into violence every single day.”
Queensland has more than 20,000 teacher aides, 7000 cleaners and 16,500 school-based support staff working across more than 1200 state schools and central and regional offices.
Members overwhelmingly voted to accept the Crisafulli government’s enterprise bargaining offer of an 8 per cent wage increase over a three-year term earlier this month.
UWU Education Co-ordinator Errin Roberts said there are other ways the government can take action to address issues.
“There has never been adequate training for our members to de-escalate or to address the complex issues that they face in classrooms every day,” Roberts said.
“And we’re talking every school, not just special schools.
“When half of the workforce experience violence in a single year, that’s a system failure, and the Crisafulli government needs to act on that.”
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