Staff not equipped to deal with rising violence in N.S. schools: auditor general

The observations in the latest report by Nova Scotia’s auditor general likely won’t come as a surprise to those who work in the province’s public school system. 

Violence at schools is on the rise, but the full extent of the problem is not known “due to significant data collection weaknesses,” according to the report released Tuesday by Kim Adair. 

Among those weakness: the need to better define what constitutes a violent act, making sure teachers and other staff consistently report acts of violence and a requirement that regional centres of education track incidents to identify possible trends.

Adair also singled out the Department of Education as part of the problem for having “an inadequate focus on preventing and addressing violence in schools.”

In another key finding, Adair noted school staff are “not adequately supported to manage violence in the workplace.”

“We concluded educators in schools in Nova Scotia are at high risk of experiencing violence in the workplace,” said the report.

“Sixty five per cent of educators who responded to our survey indicated they witnessed or experienced violence in schools at least weekly when responding to our province-wide survey, with 31 per cent indicating they experience violence in schools daily.”

As part of its audit, the auditor general’s office sent surveys to all school staff in the province — 18,000 in all. The office received 5,200 responses.

The Department of Education has agreed to all the recommendations and promised to put them in place by the start of the 2025 school year.