Teachers union raising the alarm over violent and aggressive incidents on the rise in schools

NLTA President Trent Langdon says it reflects an average increase in reported incidents per day in schools, from 20 per day in 2018-19 to 22 per day last year.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association continues to sound the alarm on the rising number of violent and aggressive incidents happening in schools every day. The results of a recent Access to Information request for the 2023-24 school year show these occurrences are still trending upwards. NLTA President Trent Langdon says it reflects an average increase in reported incidents per day in schools, from 20 per day in 2018-19 to 22 per day last year. There have been year-over-year increases in reported occurrences of violence and aggression, with a 26% increase from 2022-23 to 2023-24. Incidents of physical violence or assault increased by 29% between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. 

Violent/aggressive incidents have risen from 3,659 in 2018-19 to 4,052 during the 2023-24 school year. Langdon says teachers want accountability from government and a plan to address this. He says the current Minister of Education John Haggie has been in “caretaker mode” for the past several months and teachers want to know who is the voice of education at the table. He says the NLTA initiated School Safety Coalition has met with government to improve school safety and their solution is not enough. Langdon says government added 6 teaching and learning assistants but there are 250 schools.  Langdon says students and school staff deserve safe and secure schools—the working conditions for teachers ARE the learning conditions for students.”