I’m listing all of the incidents that I’ve experienced (that I can remember )since the start of my EA journey in late 2017.

On a regular basis I am subjected to: slapping, kicking, punching, pinching, spitting, sworn & screamed at, pushing, foot stomping & head butting.
Occasionally I am subjected to: body slamming, biting, hair pulling & threats
Once I was slapped hard across the face, whipped with a gait belt across the face just below the eye and knocked in the head by a students head

Sadly I’ve witnessed several violent incidents against coworkers & students.
This is physically and mentally exhausting.

Thanks you for collecting our stories and hopefully shedding light on this crisis!

My children have been attending St. Andre for a few years now and I have to say this is probably the worst year they have had under this new principal (***) she is absolutely horrible. The lack of diversity and representation for black children in this school is crazy. I was told there is one black staff at this school an EA who my kids called *** (I wish I knew her full last name) and she won't be returning this coming September and a big part of me is asking why? From what I heard families and their children adore her including mine. She was so good at connecting with our children and really the only representation they had, they seemed to love her. Sad to see her go. However, I am not surprised because *** seems to have a huge issue with people of colour especially our black students hopefully they get it together.

I have supplied at St. Thomas many times. I have felt welcome every time. The staff are welcoming and very helpful. I highly recommend supplying or taking a full time there.

Dear…


On behalf of myself, my fellow student support workers and the students we work with, I am writing to you today to share my experiences and express my concerns about a school system in crisis.

I have been working in the education system for over 20 years; my career in education began after several years of working in the private sector and spending a few years at home with my small children. When I reentered the workforce, I had the opportunity to work at a high school as a Student Supervisor and was introduced to the work Educational Assistants do for students with special needs. I felt a calling, and chose to go back to school, attending part time evenings and weekends to earn my Educational Assistant College Certificate. I started working in schools and was excited to be a part of the educational process. Today, I am frustrated, disheartened, spirit-broken; I am afraid for my physical safety at work and suffer mentally from what I have experienced and witnessed in the recent past, while doing my job.

When I started as an EA, the job consisted of attending to the academic, physical, emotional, and behavioural needs of students who, with additional support, could find a level of success in their education as well as their ‘life skills’ abilities. This was done in mainstream classes and a variety of small class programs. My day would consist of altering lessons according to the students’ learning needs, supporting them with the completion of their assignments, providing assistance with improving speech etc., assisting with social skills and helping them to self-regulate emotional and behavioural difficulties. There were only occasional incidents where a student would lash out physically and these would be addressed in a manner that made it clear the behaviour would not be tolerated at school. I was expected to dress professionally and it was expected that I would be treated with respect by the students. It was a learning/working environment that was safe and conducive to student success. Flash forward to today: the job still consists of attending to those very same needs but the environment has vastly changed. Students with very diverse needs and levels of ability are being placed in the same small classes. My attire now includes Personal Protective Equipment ( padded jacket, arm guards, sometimes a face shield, shin guards). I now witness and am subjected to almost daily incidents of physical aggression (sometimes multiple incidents in one day), as are the students I work with. It is an unsafe, unhealthy environment for staff and students and not conducive to successful learning outcomes for all.

The ‘Right to an Education’ for all must be balanced with the ‘Right to a Safe and Healthy Work/Learning Environment’. If we are going to honour the ‘RIght to an Education’ and not diminish it to a ‘Right to be in School’ we need to be providing the programs that recognize the
Individuality and varying needs of students. Students with special needs require programs that will provide the education for their intended outcomes. These outcomes may be higher level education, the ability to join the workforce, independent living, among others. These outcomes involve different education processes with some overlap. They also come into the school system with a variety of barriers to their success (physical barriers, lack of social skills, lack of ability to self-regulate behaviours, emotional difficulties, learning gaps…). For the most part, students with different ‘barriers’ can be taught within the same classroom environments. However, an exception should be those students who pose a significant physical risk to others. These students deserve the ability to attend a program that will help them learn to self- regulate their behaviours so they can socially interact in a positive manner with their classmates and educators - so that they can benefit from the education provided in the class. Until the self- regulation piece and its underlying causes are addressed these students will not be able to experience an education that meets their potential outcomes.

The success of other students in the class is also affected when a student acts out in a physically aggressive manner. Students’ learning is interrupted when they have to be evacuated from the classroom or if behaviours arise that interfere with a lesson. Some students become afraid to come to class - some dropping out entirely, having witnessed aggression towards staff and other students. For some, the environment creates increased anxiety and results in a decline in that student’s ability to self-regulate and their ’behaviours’ increase. In the class I work in, during the past year, we have had 2 students leave the program because they do not feel safe in the class; we have several students who have expressed fear of being in the classroom and students whose ability to self regulate has digressed due to their increased anxiety (being evacuated regularly, interruptions to lessons, witnessing aggression towards staff…) This is where we are failing to provide a ‘Safe and Healthy Learning Environment’ for all students. We are not honouring their ‘RIght to an Education’ by not providing an environment that is conducive to their best opportunity for a positive outcome.

A ‘Right to a Safe and Healthy Work Environment’ should also be applied to education workers in a more serious manner. In offices and other environments all over, we see signs and posters that tell us certain behaviours will not be tolerated against workers yet it has come to be tolerated towards education workers and accepted as ‘part of the job’. ( Parents and other caregivers of students at our school have actually expressed that they believe it is part of our job to accept this behaviour).We have workers suffering serious physical injuries in increasing numbers. Workers are experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety and other mental difficulties due to their own experiences and witnessing incidents of aggression towards their peers. I, myself, filed 18 violent incident reports in the last year; these are incidents that happened against me and does not include the number of incidents I witnessed against fellow workers or students. I was off work for over a month due to the mental effect of some of these incidents, and am off again for mental health reasons related to work. Education workers with years of experience and knowledge are leaving the profession due to the increasing violence in special education classes. Education workers want to be in their classroom helping students and for many there is a sense of guilt when they are absent as this puts added pressure on co-workers and disrupts the routine of students. Education workers deserve to feel safe, both against physical harm and mental stress, while they are attempting to serve the special needs community through their work. We too have a ‘Right to a Safe and Healthy Work environment’.


There has been a lot of the ‘Blame Game’ happening over the state of the school system and Special Education in particular, government blaming government, government blaming school boards, school boards blaming government, lack of funding, etc. etc. It’s time that all who have the power to affect change stop blaming ‘the other guy’ and get together to find a solution so that the needs of the students in Special Education can truly be met -so that we are truly honouring their ‘RIght to an Education’ and not just giving it lip service by saying they are in school. Politicians and others have claimed “We value our Education Workers.” . Then prove it, bring back appropriate small classes that will serve the students and create safer work environments for the staff. Stop trying to hide what is going on in the schools, let’s bring it out in the open so we can seek solutions. Acknowledge what Education Workers are experiencing so that we can find ways for them to feel supported instead of feeling unheard and under appreciated.

"Not enough money” you say? If we don't provide the funding necessary to provide appropriate small class placements and to staff those classes following realistic staffing models: What will the long term cost be of supporting students, after their education journey, who were unable to overcome their barriers and were unable to attain learning that would help them become more independent, help them find employment, help them self-regulate and become socially involved in their community in a positive way? What will be the cost of providing supply workers for absent Education Workers, the cost for providing care to injured employees, the cost for those workers who suffer long term disabilities who can no longer perform their jobs? And of what worth is the negative effects on our students and staff emotionally and mentally? What will be the cost to family, friends, classmates, coworkers should an incident take place that is truly life-altering or life-taking to a student or staff?

Our school system is in crisis, our schools are in crisis, many of our students are in crisis and school staff are in crisis. We need to acknowledge this and start taking it seriously in order to truly be respecting the Rights of all -’to an Education’ and to a ‘Safe and Healthy Learning / Work Environment.’

Sincerely,

I work at St Christopher Elementary CS. There are supposed to be 10 EA s on any given day. We have been running at 7-9 since December. We have lost 3 EAs to some sort of medical leave during the school year. All of those EA s have 1.8 full time years with the school board. We are tired and burning out having our schedules changed daily. We are watching kids go without coverage, seeing them lose months from their education. In every classroom we have kids "bundled" together so that 1 EA can work with all of them. Some classes have up to 4 high needs kids in them for 1 EA.
The amount of sickness that has arisen in this school year beats any year I've worked as an EA. (19 yrs including supply). So everyone is always sick.
We have a medically sensitive needs wheel chair bound child in a class with a highly volatile child with autism. The child with autism is getting next to no help causing him to lose a whole year of school. We have two children in one class that both have autism, one is echolelic and the other is highly volatile. The one who is echolelic has now started copying the other one dangerous outbursts. That's not even the half of it.
We have an old closet that is used for a movement room. Room enough for a pressure canoe, mini trampoline a tiny tent and a little tykes basketball net. We have no program support area to take the kids other than the library if it's available. No classroom of our own for resources and such. Our lunch bunch happens in the library along side of the musical rehearsals. This is the hardest year I've ever worked in this job. Mainly because there is no where to go.
However, the EA s we have are not very motivated either. The supplies we get are warm bodies that know nothing of the profession! I have a college certificate in this profession and feel quite insulted that I had to wait 2 years after graduating to be considered to be hired, then another 3 years of supply before becoming full time. Now the profession is treated like garbage.
I love what I do, I hate what is being done to my career.

I supplied here for years and loved coming back here. This year I supplied and I was not treated well. I dont plan to come back to this school ever gain. Students were ok. You are short staffed for a reason. Sorry to the great staff who are great.