Violence as a Symptom

There have been numerous investigations and reports describing the recent increases in incidents of school-based violence in Canada. A summary of these findings and links to pertinent studies have been assembled by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF/FCE) as part of its Stop Violence in Schools initiative.

Sadly, the phenomenon of witnessing or experiencing violence in schools has become the normalized experience of far too many teachers. A short list of additional resources for those seeking support or who are interested in reading further has been provided in If You Have Experienced Violence at School.

While it is not possible to exhaustively list all causes of the increasing levels of violence in schools, we do know that the following realities have had an impact:

• the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath
• social media usage and content absorption
• growing economic inequality due to job losses, precarious employment etc.
• a sense of hopelessness and despair around global and Canadian politics
• artificial intelligence
• fear of an uncertain economic future
• youth unemployment
• lack of support services and cuts to education, health care and social services
• less funding for special education and mental health needs of students

Understanding the depth and breadth of these factors helps us to comprehend what is happening in schools.

Violence is often an expression of power imbalances

In schools, as in society, there are systemic and structural power imbalances or interpersonal abuses of power, or a combination of these. Young people are especially vulnerable to abuse and violence—they have insufficient information, resources and experience, can feel a sense of isolation and are dependent on adults. Not only do young people experience violence from adults, but they may also mimic adult violence in their interactions with peers to gain a sense of power.

“With some kids you can talk to them right away about what has happened and reason or repair but other students you need to give them time and come back to it later in the day or the next day—you must know your students.”

Whether they see this adult violence at home, at school, in community organizations, in sports, online, in the world at large or in other communal spaces, young people have too often observed that power can be wielded to abuse others, rather than seeing instances of personal and collective power used for good. However, as we know, abuse of power is never ok—whether the perpetrator is a child or an adult or has another form of societal advantage.

Schools are places that represent a structure with implicit imbalance of power, with teachers, principals and other educators de facto acting as authority figures.

While we may understand the pressures leading children and youth to lash out against authority, this does not imply that we should accept behaviour that is detrimental to the well-being of the human beings who make up the school community. The normalization of violence within our schools is deeply harmful to the preservation of everyone’s humanity and dignity and of the societal norms that allow students to grow up with a sense of agency and security.

“Try to understand the behaviour of students. The behaviour is a method of communication, something is going on and we have to dig and question and put in the effort.”

Why is an understanding of power imbalance significant? Aggression and violence (student-to-student or student-to-staff) cannot be normalized or allowed to continue unaddressed. Awareness of power imbalances can help us contextualize behaviours and actions and help us, as teachers, to reflect on and interrogate the strategies we might harness to respond to students showing aggressive behaviours or acting violently.