Education support staff in Algoma sound off on school violence

Educational support staff are speaking out on a report from the Algoma District School Board (ADSB) which shows an uptick in violence incidents in schools. The union representing support staff says its members often experience burnout as well as physical injury on the job and they are calling for more resources and better support.

“No other job do you go to with the expectation that you’re going to get hit, spit on, your hair is going to get grabbed, you’re going to get chairs thrown at you, desks, classrooms are being destroyed,” said Liz Tassone, Educational Support Staff President for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF.)

Michele McCleave-Kennedy, an elementary educational assistant with he board, told CTV News that support staff often wear protective gear to class.

“You would be wearing protection that’s a sleeve that covers your arm and your fingers, you might be wearing a spit shield, a plastic shield that kids can’t spit on you, Kevlar jacket, as you can well imagine, is a padded jacket,” she said.

“We have our jail guards wearing the same kind of equipment that we’re seeing in the school system.”

As CTV News reported previously, the ADSB recorded more than 1,200 incidents of violence against staff in the 2022-2023 school year.

Joe Santa Maria is the board’s associate director of operations and he said the numbers point to a relatively small number of incidents.

“We have 10,000 students within our board, 35 or so students have reported multiple incidents, or about 65 per cent of the incidents that were reported within schools,” he said.

Santa Maria said she applauds the work of support staff and added the board is doing the best it can to address the situation.

“I think any public organization, whether it’s in the province or Canada-wide, could always use more funding,” he said.

“But, we have the resources in place that we have and we make those resources work as best we can.”

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Jason Young, the District 2 bargaining unit president for the OSSTF, said more support and resources are needed – not just for the sake of staff – but for students as well.

“The supports that we’re asking for, the things that we need in our working environment, help us,” he said.

“But the goal is to help the students and students need to be put in the forefront in this discussion.”

Tassone said absentee rates among support staff are high with many members taking stress leave or recovering from injury.

Tassone added that the average annual pay for an educational assistant is around $30,000 – making recruitment all the more difficult.