The number of Canberra teachers and principals taking leave due to violence, harassment and bullying in school has tripled in just five years, according to government data.
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In the past financial year, 67 educators took leave after reporting such incidents compared to 42 the year before and only 16 in 2013-14.
As the union warns violence and "excessive" workloads are taking a toll on teachers, WorkSafe ACT has launched legal action against the territory's education directorate for failing to protect its staff.
On Monday, Work Safety Commissioner Greg Jones revealed a two-year investigation into three public schools found the ACT government had breached its duty of care, reflecting systemic problems with its workplace violence policies.
Among the incidents investigated was the case of a pregnant staff member punched repeatedly in the stomach by a young student, a teacher hospitalised after a kick and a support worker who reported multiple injuries from students but was left in harm's way for months as strategies put in place failed to protect them.
A spokeswoman for the ACT government's education directorate said it took all incidents of violence and bullying seriously and was rolling out $7 million reforms designed to increase reporting and improve responses to occupational violence.
In the case of an explicit threat, the spokeswoman said security guards could be arranged at schools, but this had only happened three times between January 2013 and August this year.
While reports of occupational violence in schools jumped to 1500 in 2017, ACT secretary of the Australian Education Union Glenn Fowler said he did not believe students were becoming more violent. Instead, a cultural shift towards reporting was underway in schools.
"In the past our [teachers], they weren't talked out of it but they were told it was part of the job," Mr Fowler said.
"Now people have a better understanding of what's acceptable and not acceptable."
Responding to the increasing number of staff taking leave over bullying and harassment, Mr Fowler said there were "definite stressors" in schools, driven in part by intense workloads that saw educators clocking in up to 65 hours a week.
While Canberra schools enjoy fairly high teacher to student ratios, Mr Fowler said resourcing was crucial to any workplace violence policy.
"Often that will involve extra staff," he said, adding the union did not believe schools were necessarily understaffed.
Education minister Yvette Berry has committed a further $2.4 million to implement WorkSafe's recommendations over the next two years, but did not say whether staffing would be considered in reforms. A specialist three-person team brought in last year to help schools deal with occupational violence would be expanded by four new staff and "external expert services".
Ms Berry said the directorate's new workplace violence policy, developed alongside the union and launched in July last year, was now leading the nation in addressing the issue.
While reports of violence increased, the directorate stressed in its latest annual report that the time staff spent off work had not, though it did not provide those figures before deadline.
The latest national survey of principal wellbeing found close to one in two Australian school leaders had been threatened with violence, with parents and students identified as the main perpetrators, and students reported to be behind the majority of assaults. More than 50 per cent of Canberra principals were threatened in 2017, slightly more than the previous year, though reported violence dropped to about 40 per cent of school leaders. Last year, about 45 per cent also reported being bullied.
Ms Berry said plans underway to meet WorkSafe's requirements included improving support for students with behavioural issues due to disability or trauma, who were often at the centre of incidents. The journey forward would be a difficult one, she said, as the right of all students to an inclusive education was balanced against the need to keep schools safe.
As well as rolling out violence training, a spokeswoman said the directorate was consulting with schools about new guidelines to help staff faced with "unreasonable behaviour from external community members".
"Our relationship with our community is mostly very positive...but from time to time school leaders and teachers are faced with unacceptable and intimidating behaviour from adults," she said.
Mr Fowler noted political rhetoric around education, that saw teachers publicly singled out, questioned and critiqued, could also be to blame for aggression from the community.
"Kevin Rudd famously said he'd sack principals if the NAPLAN results weren't good, and it wasn't just him. The public have had it modelled to them that teachers are at their disposal."
Opposition spokeswoman for education Elizabeth Lee condemned the government's failure to protect school staff, calling on Ms Berry to apologise to teachers for the breach identified by WorkSafe.
"[Her] claim that her government is leading the nation on this issue is insulting and insensitive," Ms Lee said.
"The Labor government has shown a remarkable disregard and disrespect for the profession and has essentially allowed teachers to come to harm."
The directorate's annual report also revealed an increase in compensation claims for psychological injury by staff in 2017, offsetting a fall in claims for musculoskeletal disorders.
In the past financial year there were 3139 work, health and safety reports, up from 2242 the year before. So far in 2018, WorkSafe has slapped the directorate with two improvement notices.
The watchdog will closely monitor the roll-out of its recommendations, Mr Jones said.
Know more? sherryn.groch@fairfaxmedia.com.au
