‘At a crisis point’: Teachers commonly face threats from students, survey shows

Dover, DE — More than half of public school teachers have been the target of verbal aggression or threats by a student in the past three years, according to a recent survey conducted by the Delaware State Education Association.

Earlier this year, DSEA surveyed more than 1,000 of its members to better understand challenges related to student behavior and their impact on teachers. Seventy-five percent of the teachers said they’ve experienced verbal outbursts by students that disrupted learning, with 55% indicating the aggression/threats were directed at them.

Nearly 2 out of 5 of the teachers (39%) said they’ve evacuated classrooms because of unsafe student behavior, while 1 out of 5 reported being physically injured by a student.

Also notable:

• The teachers reported spending, on average, seven hours a month managing student behavior issues. For middle school teachers, it’s 10 hours a month.
• 60% said they’re likely to leave public education for other careers. Veteran teachers were among the most likely to quit the profession because of unresolved student behavior issues.
• More than 75% agreed that parental support is lacking when dealing with student discipline, while 60% indicated that they lack support from school administrators.

Potential solutions identified by the teachers include smaller class sizes (95%), more support from administration (93%), more co-teachers in large classrooms with high-needs students (91%), better administrative communication with parents (90%) and freeing up mental health professionals to provide more assistance to students (86%).

“We’re at a crisis point in public education that’s only going to get worse until administrators, school boards and state legislators take corrective action to restore our schools to the safe and healthy learning environments that students need to be successful,” DSEA President Stephanie Ingram said in a press release.