When NYSUT lobbied to have the Workplace Violence Prevention Act expanded to include public schools in 2023, the goal was to make classrooms safer for students and teachers alike and to ensure that the profession remained an attractive and sustainable career choice.
However, locals are finding out that implementing the legislation is harder than expected because administrators – and sometimes even district legal counsel – don’t understand that violence against educators, regardless of student age or disability status, is workplace violence.
To help locals implement the Workplace Violence Prevention legislation, NYSUT staff are now conducting WVPA training across the state. Led by Tricia Geisel, health and safety specialist for the union, and Kelly Fahrenkopf, assistant in research and educational services, the two-hour “Creating Safer Schools” presentation covers best practices for integrating the legislation into educational environments and focuses on how IDEA and other educational laws intersect with the new labor law.
“NYSUT pressed for this legislation because we're committed to doing everything possible to support schools that are safe for educators and students alike. Now, we’re working alongside our members at schools across New York to make sure this legislation is implemented effectively,” said Ron Gross, NYSUT second vice president. Gross supervises program services at NYSUT.
The legislation requires that all school districts perform a risk assessment of their employees’ working conditions, collect data on all violent incidents, and develop effective mitigation measures to prevent future incidents.
In November, the Malone Federation of Teachers hosted the training for the district’s entire 500-member faculty and staff. Previously, violent incidents weren’t being reported, and when they were reported, administrators were questioning their validity, said Nate Hathaway, Malone FT president and a high school history teacher. “They were saying things like, ‘That didn’t really hurt you,’” said Hathaway.
During the training, Geisel and Fahrenkopf explained that IDEA and WVPA are two separate tracks, and while IDEA maintains that students can’t - and shouldn’t - be punished for behaviors that are a manifestation of their disability, WVPA still requires that those behaviors be recorded and that the data be used by the district to develop effective violence prevention strategies for employees.
“It’s about getting accurate data so that we can create the best mitigation strategies,” Hathaway said. Mitigation strategies can include additional staffing, targeted trainings, or even PPE equipment.
In communities across New York, teachers are consistently finding themselves on the receiving end of student outbursts, and often that means being hit, bitten or kicked.
"There has been an increase in difficult student behaviors, especially leading up to the Workplace Violence Prevention Act, and it was really straining the system,” said Michael Modleski, president of the Victor Teachers Association and a high school English teacher.
Prior to WVPA, there was a lot of confusion about when to report incidents, Modleski said. “I think the biggest thing that the act has done is that it’s forced us to have those conversations about how we manage difficult behaviors on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “That’s what we do as union leaders. We create conversations.”
In Fulton, educators were told that workplace violence didn’t include student violence against teachers, said Fulton TA President Kerrie Phillips. Phillips reached out to NYSUT to get guidance on the matter and was advised that the legislation applies to everyone. “If you look at the legislation, it doesn’t matter if it’s a student or an adult injuring an employee,” Phillips said. Fulton participated in a NYSUT training in December, and since then, incident reporting has been more accurate and consistent, said Phillips.
In December, a representative from each of the Saratoga Springs City School District’s eight school buildings met to take the NYSUT training. The building reps will become the local’s workplace ‘violence prevention liaisons,’ helping ensure that each building’s employees know how to report incidents and advocate for violence prevention solutions. They’ll also be part of the team that analyzes the reports at the end of the year and recommends mitigation measures.
“We need to empower our members,” said third-grade teacher Rana Hughes, co-president of the Saratoga Springs TA. “As one of the leaders of a local, I want our members to feel safe and comfortable speaking up when there’s an issue. Speaking up about something that happens in the classroom will ensure students are being better assisted, too.”
WVPA - Myths Vs. Facts
NYSUT members are hearing a lot of inaccurate information when it comes to workplace violence, so we decided to correct some of the most common misconceptions.
Myth: “It doesn’t count if the student is less than 10 years old.”
Fact: According to the law, workplace violence is any physical assault or act of aggressive behavior occurring where a public employee performs any work-related duty. The law makes no provision for age or any other characteristics, only that the injury has been sustained during work as a result of violent or aggressive behavior. The law also doesn’t require employees to include the student’s age in the incident report or take any additional action that would be related to age. Long story short: age is not relevant.
Myth: “It’s only violence if the student intended to hurt you.”
Fact: The Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau (PESH), which is charged with investigating labor law violations, describes “intent” as actions beyond a students’ control. They are essentially referring to an injury resulting from an action that was accidental. For example, if a student is running for the bus, and they trip and fall and knock over their teacher in the process, that would not be a case of workplace violence. If, on the other hand, a student with disabilities is feeling frustrated because a teacher is not doing what the student wants, and out of frustration, they punch the teacher in the face, that would be classified as workplace violence.
Myth: “It’s not workplace violence if the student has an IEP.”
Fact: Students have rights, but protecting the rights of students doesn’t absolve the district of their duty to protect their employees. They must do both. IDEA and WVPA are two separate laws: IDEA is about students and WVPA is about employees. WVPA requires that public employers, including schools, develop and implement programs to help ensure the safety of their employees. In order to do that, employers are required to keep an accurate record of all violent incidents – including student assaults. Recording the incidents doesn’t mean the students are punished, which could be a violation of IDEA. Rather, once the incidents are reported, the employer, with the participation of an authorized employee representative, must review the report at least once a year to identify possible trends in the types of incidents that have occurred, evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation strategies and adopt better strategies. This could include assigning additional staff to the student in question, protective equipment for staff members, or even better training.
Myth: “It’s only workplace violence if you get raped or murdered.”
Fact: Workplace violence is any physical assault or act of aggressive behavior against an employee. This includes, but is not limited to: any attempt or threat, whether verbal or physical, to inflict physical injury upon an employee; any display of force which would give an employee reason to fear or expect bodily harm; intentional and wrongful physical contact with a person without his or her consent that entails some injury; and stalking an employee with the interest in causing fear of physical harm.