Thames Valley elementary suspension rates up, board numbers show
Violent incidents that led to expulsion or suspension have increased recently at Thames Valley
The number of incidents that have led to suspensions and expulsions at the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) is growing, forcing the director of education to make reducing the rate one of his core priorities.
The increase has been in the elementary level, where there were 5,378 violent incidents in the 2017-2018 school year, up from 3,664 in 2011-12. That's a 46 per cent increase over seven years.
Of those incidents, which are defined as threatening the physical wellbeing or moral tone of a school — anything from swearing at a teacher to bringing a weapon to school — about half lead to suspensions.
In TVDSB elementary schools, 1,858 students were suspended in the 2011-2012 school year. In 2017-2018, 2,472 students were suspended, a 22 per cent increase.
"These numbers are important to us because they show us where our areas of concern are, and where we might need to do additional work with our teaching staff, our front-line office staff, and our administrators," said Sheila Powell, the board's superintendent in charge of student achievement.
"We've identified that we want to look at progressive discipline and ensure that our suspension rates are appropriate for the behaviours we're seeing in our schools. We want to make sure our students are in school learning and we're protecting the learning environment of all students, and also that we're looking at every opportunity for a range of progressive discipline strategies."
That could mean early intervention or de-escalation of situations before a student is suspended, Powell said.
The focus will be on students with individual education plans. Those are students who might have learning difficulties or behaviour issues that need some kind of accommodation.
Focus on the child, family
Although parents of kids who have been the victims of violent incidents want swift action, there is often a lot of intervention going on behind the scenes, said Scott Askey, a principal at London's Sir John A. Macdonald public school.
"We approach all of our students through a compassionate and caring lens," he said.
"When students are acting out, whether through physical means or through words, it's a call out for support. It's our role as educators in the school to meet those students, respond to their needs, connect the school with the family to see what we can do to help. We approach all these incidents as a whole school team."
Also involved are social workers, psychologists and other professionals, Askey said.
Mediation at high schools
At the secondary level, principals may also use the St. Leonard's society's mediation team, which works with victims and perpetrators to come to an understanding, said Montcalm Secondary School principal Christine Giannacopoulos.
"We've really been working on knowing our students, putting some proactive initiatives in place to help students manage their own behaviours. The better we know our students, the better we can help them," said Giannacopoulos.
"If there's a fight, we might call St. Leonard's, they would interview the two students involved, the family members, and if both parties are in mutual agreement, they would be brought together with a mediator to try to understand where the actual hurt started, why they were upset in the first place. Almost every time we've done a mediation, students realize the miscommunication was so strong, they just didn't know how the other felt. They acted on hurt."
When mediation does happen, Giannacopoulos said she's never had the another occurrence between the two students.