Nova Scotia needs a plan to deal with escalating school violence, NDP says

The Education Department is ignoring the problem of escalating violence in Nova Scotia’s public schools, says the New Democratic Party.

“The education minister’s response to the issue of violence in schools continues to be very concerning,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters after question period at the legislature on Friday.

“We hear from teachers and from families that this is a huge concern in our schools and it’s a complex concern but the minister seems to negate that it exists as an issue.”

The NDP referred to statistics obtained in a freedom-of-information request that showed 17,234 incidents of physical violence occurred in Nova Scotia’s schools from Sept. 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

During question period Friday, Suzy Hansen, the NDP representative for Halifax Needham, took Education Minister Becky Druhan to task about school violence statistics.

“Earlier this year, the minister said that the annual rates of violent incidents in schools were relatively stable but a FOIPOP obtained by the NDP caucus shows that these incidents have increased by 25 per cent this year alone,” Hansen said. “Will the minister step up and protect teachers and students in school or will she continue to deny that we have a problem at all?”

Safe places

Druhan agreed that schools need to be safe places.

“We know what students deserve and we want to deliver on ensuring that our schools are safe spaces for our students,” Druhan said. “Our administrators and our staff work hard every day to make that the case.”

There have been high-profile cases of violence in Halifax-area high schools during the past year.

Police responded to a weapons call at C.P. Allen High School in Bedford on the morning of March 20. A student allegedly stabbed two school employees before fleeing the school.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested nearby.

The employees were taken to hospital with serious injuries but were in stable condition after receiving treatment, police said. They were released from hospital within a few days.

The suspect, who allegedly harmed himself with a knife during the incident, was treated at hospital for non-life-threatening wounds.

The teen, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, had a gauze bandage on his throat when he first appeared in court March 21.

He pleaded not guilty to 11 charges: two counts each of attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and carrying a concealed weapon, and single counts of possession of a prohibited weapon, mischief, and possession of a weapon knowing it was unauthorized.

He was later released on bail and will stand trial in Halifax youth court next March and April.

Elementary violence

In October 2022, Halifax police say they responded to a fight involving 50 young people at Halifax West High School.

One teenage boy was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being stabbed.

A suspect was arrested.

Those incidents notwithstanding, the information obtained from the Education Department last month clarified that 77 per cent of the incidents of physical violence are recorded at the elementary school level, “while students are learning about appropriate interpersonal interactions, self-regulation and other important social emotional skills.”

The department said physical violence as defined in the Provincial School Code of Conduct Policy, is “using force, gesturing, or inciting others to use force to injure a member of the school community.”

Ringing alarms

Incidents of violence can range in severity and in the context in which they are reported, the department said in its response to the freedom-of-information request.

Druhan said statistics represent a variety of incidents that occur all the way from pre-Primary to Grade 12.

“For the specific question about rates of incidents, I can say that incidents have remained stable,” Druhan said. “Perhaps the member opposite (Hansen) didn’t recognize that during COVID, people were not in schools as frequently.”

Hansen said “teachers have been ringing alarms for years about this growing problem” and a provincial strategy to address school violence must be formulated.

“Although the rates of incidents have remained stable over the last number of years, safety is something that we need to and do work on all the time to continuously improve,” Druhan replied.

The incident counts are solely the number of incidents reported in the system, the department said in freedom-of-information response, adding that the incident counts are not reflective of the number of students affected by an incident.

Some students are involved in more than one incident so the count will be more than the number of students involved.

Teachers report hike

In April of this year, the Nova Scotia Teachers Union released the results of a survey that showed about 87 per cent of teachers and educational specialists believe that school violence has increased in the province since 2018.

Similarly, 92 per cent of those surveyed said they had witnessed violence first-hand at school, while 55 per cent said they had been the victim of a violent act or threat while at work.

Of the 2,534 teachers who responded to the survey that was conducted between March 27 and April 13, 2023, fewer than one per cent, only 17 respondents, believed that violence levels in schools are on the decline.

“All too often I receive phone calls and emails from teachers who are upset and concerned about a violent event they witnessed or experienced at school,” NSTU president Ryan Lutes said in response to the survey results.

“Incidents between students are becoming more frequent, more severe and alarmingly more dangerous. Teachers and school staff members are often kicked, bit, hit, punched, threatened and verbally abused. Unfortunately, these incidents frequently go unaddressed or are characterized as just part of going to school. This is unacceptable.”

Chender said if you talk to teachers, if you talk to families, violence in schools is absolutely an issue.

“We can’t get to having a solution or discussing a plan if we can’t acknowledge that we have a problem,” Chender said.

“This minister doesn’t seem to want to do that and it’s contrary to what hear from teachers right across this province.”