Principals want panel task force to tackle violence
Principals under siege from abusive students and parents have appealed to the State Government to set up a task force to tackle violence in schools.
WA Primary Principals Association president Stephen Breen said that in the past year there had been several separate incidents in which principals had been attacked.
One principal was involved on four occasions.
He was hit on the back with a tree branch, attacked with a reticulation pipe, hit over the head with a plastic sign and threatened with a broken bottle.
All the violence involved students.
Another attack involved a parent twice punching a female principal in the head.
Professional associations representing school leaders from public and private schools met Education Minister Peter Collier last week to discuss findings from a Monash University report on the wellbeing of principals.
It said principals were seven times more likely to be assaulted than the general public and five times more likely to be threatened with violence.
The groups asked Mr Collier to set up a task force to investigate violence and intimidation of principals and teachers in WA.
They called for more support to help principals struggling to cope with intimidation or stress and for extra training in dealing with conflicts.
Mr Breen said it would be more cost-effective for the Government to put money into supporting principals instead of paying out tens of thousands of dollars in workers compensation.
He said though principals had a duty of care to students and staff, their employers were also obliged to protect principals.
“If you’re placing a principal in a situation where they’re physically abused, something has to be done,” Mr Breen said.
Mr Breen said verbal bullying from parents was even more of a problem than physical abuse.
Monash academic Philip Riley, who surveyed more than 2000 principals across Australia, said increased emphasis on school accountability measures such as national literacy and numeracy testing sent a message to parents that educators should be doing more for children.
It fuelled offensive behaviour by parents.
Mr Collier said the principals’ groups had agreed to submit a proposal for consideration.
“The discussion also centred on the broader aspects of proactively supporting the health and wellbeing of school leaders – not just the reactive strategies that are in place for individual incidents,” he said.
Education Department director-general Sharyn O’Neill said any assault on a staff member was a concern but serious incidents in public schools were rare.
The department offered courses to train staff in restraint and defusing volatile situations.
Catholic Education Office director Tim McDonald said staff in Catholic schools had access to counselling and support.
