Henrik Bolin, head of department of the elementary school system in Skellefteå municipality, has become aware that teachers are experiencing a bigger problem with disruptive students.
There has been a significant increase in student misbehaviour affecting both teachers and other pupils, which has alerted the teachers' union. Most violations affect students, but Norran's review shows that teachers are also exposed, sometimes to both serious violence and serious verbal attacks.
We have requested statistics from recent years. It shows that two to three violations are reported every day during the school year. It mainly involves physical violence, but also verbal and psychological violations and harassment.
The municipality of Skellefteå has been keeping aggregate statistics on abuse and discrimination since 2019, and these are the statistics we have looked at. During the entire school year 2021/2022, a total of 891 violation cases were noted in the municipal primary schools in the municipality. In 2022, 134 incidents and work injuries were reported as a result of threats and violence against teachers.
When the data is analyzed, a pattern emerges. Teachers are injured when they step in between students who are fighting, when they try to protect students from other students, or when students are reprimanded. It could be about students being told off when they disturb others or when they refuse to return to school from recess. The assaults and violence are often quite brutal — with death threats and physical violence. For example, a teacher writes: "Then the student turns around and slaps me in the nose, so I started to bleed and my nose now hurts a lot." More examples (in Swedish) can be found in the graphic.
Norran has also read 50 reported cases where children threatened, used violence against or verbally abused other children. We have chosen to take a random sample from the autumn of 2022. The majority of the cases appeared to be fairly "typical", such as student fights – children who pushed each other, hit or bullied each other. The incidents have been observed and reported by staff. Most of these occur in secondary schools.
The unions and Henrik Bolin, head of primary schools in Skellefteå, both agree. Reports of students becoming more aggressive have increased. The question is whether the behavior is really increasing, or whether it is being reported more often or is receiving more attention. At the same time, it is described as a work environment problem, both for students and teachers.
– It is not good advertising for the teaching profession in Skellefteå, says Mikael Johansson, chairman of the teachers' union in Skellefteå.
What are your members saying?
– We have not seen any dramatic increase in these types of incidents. In the last ten years, however, there has been a discussion about what teachers can expect to have to put up with, and what behavior should be reported. Where the teachers draw the line. It can be difficult to judge, espcially for new teachers.
Mikael Johansson and Thomas Ekholm share the chairmanship of Sweden's teachers in Skellefteå.
He adds:
– We feel that this type of violation has been addressed more systematically at a municipal level recently.
–The school management is working more on these issues, and we hope they take the reports seriously, says Thomas Ekholm, who shares the chairmanship with Johansson.
Do you share the opinion that it's worse in secondary schools?
– Yes, our impression is that younger children have become more aggressive. We've long understood that older students can use unpleasant language, but when younger students also express themselves in this way, we can have a hard time knowing how to deal with it.
Åsa Olsson, of the union, Sveriges Lärare, has raised the issue of disruptive students at schools.
Union officer, Åsa Olsson also confirms the picture.
– More teachers are contacting us. It can be about situations that become both violent physically and verbally.
– No one should have a work environment where you are afraid of getting hit
She believes that extra people are needed in the school but also continuing education.
– Many who come from teacher training are perhaps not prepared for what it can be like.
She adds:
– Actually, no one is prepared to receive abusive students, says Olsson.
Marielle Ågren, elected representative for Kommunal, represents support staff within the schools.
Support staff are most often exposed to abusive students. These are the school assistants, teaching assistants and pedagogical assistants as well as child and youth assistants. There are a total of these 250 staff in Skellefteå municipality.
– Our members work closely with the students and are very vulnerable. There is a lot of physical violence. Unfortunately, it is not always reported, says Marielle Ågren at Kommunal in Skellefteå, which is the support workers' union.
What kind of situations are these?
– Usually students fight and the support staff intervene and are caught in the middle. Often the incident is reported on behalf of the student but not of the support staff.
According to Ågren, in surveys, the union has received feedback that it is difficult to risk being exposed to physical violence, kicked, beaten and bitten.
– Many of our groups do not think that they have been warned about or trained in dealing with violence, says Ågren.
Henrik Bolin points out that he cannot say whether violence, threats and violations are really increasing in the school as he has no figures that can confirm or deny it.
– We have started a discussion about it. It's something I've recently come to grips with, and it's something we need to dig into further.
He has not read the reports Norran has seen. Norran points out that there have been many serious incidents.
Bolin cannot answer whether he feels that the incidents have become more serious or more difficult to deal with. In that case, it must be established based on statistics, he points out.
What is the most common reason behind the aggression?
– The most common issue is that the student has a neuropsychiatric disability, a diagnosis that makes it difficult to handle things. It can also be due to trauma. The student is unable to handle a situation or a failure and then becomes aggressive.
Norran asks Mikael Johansson if they share the view that it is often students with neuropsychiatric disabilities or trauma who are aggressive.
– It's hard to say, but it could probably be that way. The problems are manifested in increasingly younger children. You can sometimes see norm-breaking behavior already in preschool. Therefore, early interventions are important.
How does the schools' collaboration with BUP (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry service) and social services work?
–We don't have any detailed knowledge, but we know in general that many schools lack resources. There is something called HLT, a preventive collaboration between school, healthcare and social services. The collaboration can work well sometimes, but it is often difficult to reduce teachers' stress, as the case always seems to end up back in the teacher's lap, says Johansson.
What do you mean?
– Many of the things you describe in your summary are very traumatic for the teachers involved. Having to meet the same student again the next day can make the situation worse. The school is a special world, because as a teacher you meet the students every day. Threats and violence outside the school are totally different to inside the school.
What is the support framework like for teachers?
– It is the immediate manager who must adjust the workplace. Municipal health can also offer call support and HR can also provide support, says Henrik Bolin.
He mentions that there is a plan for measures to take against abusive treatment and discrimination and preventive work together with student health. Concrete measures can be things like mapping unsafe environments.
What measures are taken in case of recurring problems?
– Extra staffing is a measure. Guidance from student health is another; for example psychological help. You can change working methods and routines. There is also a resource center for students who find it difficult to be in a regular school. If children get hurt, we can report it to social services if that is the cause.
In the comments, it appears that educators believe that it has become tougher and that there is a lack of support staff. Bolin points out that he needs to see figures proving that the situation has become worse and that there is not enough support. According to him, there may be other things that play a role in the meeting with the students.
– It can be a question of resources, but also a question of teachers' knowledge and competence. It can be about treatment and how to avoid putting students in a situation where they fail, for example.
What kind of support do you get via BUP?
–Those students who have a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis usually have contact with BUP. We can get guidance and tips from them. But regardless of whether you have a diagnosis or not, we work with the children based on who they are, says Bolin.
Mikael Johansson points out that there is a teacher shortage in the schools, and also in other professional groups.
– We are fewer adults, and it is clear that this shortage affects things. More teachers are needed, but also other skills that can support. As a teacher, you have maybe 30 students, and then you also need others who can handle challenging students.
There are action steps for students who are disruptive.
– But there are rarely long-term solutions with a suspension, expulsion, or transfer or something like that. We need to get to grips with the work environment, so we know how to handle different situations. If we have 864 cases, we cannot see it as 864 cases without connection to each other. But then we have to talk about the strategies for how to bring those numbers down, says Johansson.
He also believes that one must talk about threats and abuse of teachers and that this is not okay.
Marielle Ågren thinks that Skellefteå municipality now takes the assistants' situation seriously.
–The employer is positive about training efforts. Together with the employer, we have started to talk about training efforts for the various assistant groups. There is a big difference in the dialogue now compared to a few years ago.
But she also points out that the proportion of assistants is increasing in all professional groups.
– In the past, we have not invested in these professional groups, which we are doing now. But it takes time, says Ågren.
NPF
Neurodevelopmental disorders, or NPF diagnoses, are collective names for various conditions and diagnoses.
ADHD - attention deficit hyperactive disorder, means that you have difficulty concentrating, sitting still and controlling impulses.
ASD - autism spectrum disorder, is a collective name for disabilities that affect one's way of thinking, being and communicating with other people. It is about autism, autism-like conditions and Asperger's syndrome.
Tourette's syndrome - involves movement tics and sound tics in children. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is also common and the child has difficulty concentrating and controlling impulses.
Source: 1177.se