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Classrooms among most dangerous
worksites NYSUT lobbies to prevent violence in the 4th most dangerous profession 
September 10, 2003 Ron Racey of Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk testifies at a state Department of Labor hearing on workplace standards. In some quarters, it is a well-kept secret that working in schools puts you at risk of violence. The teaching occupation had the fourth highest rate of victimization from violence, averaging 17.6 per 1,000 workers each year and ranking behind only law enforcement, mental health and retail sales, noted New York State United Teachers Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. Among occupational groups, special educators were victimized more often than mental health professionals. Junior high educators were victimized more than convenience store workers, said Lubin, citing the National Crime Victimization Survey of Violence in the Workplace 1993-99, released in 2001 and available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vw99.pdf. The union is lobbying for a workplace standard with enforceable violence prevention procedures. Lubin made the case at a June hearing of the state Labor Department's Hazard Abatement Board. City figures Assaults on educators are up 26 percent in the first eight months of this year, and physical harassment is up 36 percent, according to a report by NYSUT's affiliate in New York City schools, the United Federation of Teachers. Elementary schools suffered the biggest increase in assaults, UFT President Randi Weingarten reported. Others told harrowing personal stories. Syracuse Teachers Association member Joanne Licitra recounted how a student entered her French class and twisted her arm hard enough to tear ligaments. The student was placed on homebound instruction but soon returned to school. Sandie Carner-Shafran, a teaching assistant with the Saratoga Adirondack BOCES Employees Association, has been attacked three times. In one incident, Carner-Shafran, who is a member of NYSUT's Board of Directors, and another adult were attacked by a student - and the student was back in school the next day. Carner-Shafran did not receive counseling. After the second attack, she said, " I had to wear long-sleeve shirts for a good part of the summer. My bruises were so gruesome it looked as if a bear attacked me." A workplace violence standard could provide for counseling, training and review of attacks. "I was never trained about how to work with this type of student or what to do if I was attacked," she testified. Higher ed The problem lurks in college, too. Darryl Wood, Binghamton chapter president for United University Professions union, NYSUT's affiliate in SUNY institutions, said there is no oversight for safety issues at the southern tier campus, and no procedures to address workplace violence. "There needs to be some in order to enforce these issues," he testified. A Labor Department standard would complement the two-year-old Schools Against Violence in Education Act, Lubin testified. - Liza Frenette |
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