(Canada) Winnipeg: Teachers' Assoc. reports on violent incidents in the classroom

Feb 4, 2018, (Canada) CTV, Winnipeg: 'It’s not the job of the teacher to be hit': Winnipeg Teachers’ Association https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/it-s-not-the-job-of-the-teacher-to-be-hit-winnipeg-teachers-association-1.3789438 The Winnipeg Teachers’ Association wants to encourage its members to report acts of violence or threats of violence. “It’s not the job of the teacher to be hit, kicked, slapped or called names in the course of doing their job,” said Kristin Insull, President of the Winnipeg Teachers’ Association (WTA), the union representing all instructional staff within the Winnipeg School Division. Insull said a year-end report from the Winnipeg School Division showed that during the 2016-2017 school year, its members reported the equivalent of one violent incident for every six-day cycle. That works out to be about 35 incidents reported that year. “From having spoken with teachers at school visits and other meetings with members we know that number should be a lot higher in terms of reported incidents,” Insull said. She believes incidents often go unreported because some staff aren’t aware of reporting procedures or because some are hesitant to label a child as violent. In 2015, the WTA did a survey that found only about 50 per cent of its members were “very aware that there was a policy or procedure to report violent incidents in schools.” “There’s also a connotation of the word violent that teachers are sometimes hesitant to apply to a child with special needs,” Insull said. …