Number of violent incidents at WRDSB schools have risen sharply this year | 24CA News
A employees report obtained by the Waterloo Region District School Board on Monday night time says that violent incidents at public colleges within the space have doubled over 1 / 4 of this faculty 12 months.
It notes that there have been 606 incidents between Nov. 16, 2022 and the tip of January, with the overwhelming majority of these having occurred at elementary colleges within the space.
Of the incidents, there have been 564 (versus 252 a 12 months earlier) at space elementary colleges with the report breaking them down into 4 classes.
There have been 395 incidents which got here below the hazard class, which incorporates potential points or close to misses.
The relaxation fell below classes that are just a little dicier together with 156 which wanted minor first help together with small scrapes or scratches, 5 wherein employees wanted assist from an outdoor medical practitioner and eight which required staff to overlook time at work.
As far as secondary colleges, there have been 42 incidents reported over the identical time-frame vs. simply 18 a 12 months earlier.
Of these, 18 fell below the hazard class whereas 21 required first help, one individual wanted outdoors well being care whereas two others wanted to take day off work after the incident.
Graham Shantz, the affiliate director of WRDSB, mentioned that the sudden improve in numbers can partially be attributed to college students merely being again at school after years of disruptions from the COVID-10 pandemic.
“The previous two years have been very unique years in our school system,” he mentioned on the assembly. “We have had big expanses in time where students have not been in schools.”
Shantz mentioned that whereas numbers are up versus the 2019-20 faculty 12 months, they’re in the identical ballpark.
He additionally speculated that some college students should still be adjusting to being in a classroom atmosphere after having been homeschooled in the course of the pandemic.
“We have had a lot of students come back to a school system, that have not experienced a school system in a number of years, and that’s a very challenging and traumatic adjustment for students,” he mentioned.
“In some of those cases, the students have not been in school at all. In the case of our youngest learners and for other students, they are making the transition from an environment where they were learning at home remotely to a very different structured environment.”
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