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I reckon we are dreaming if we think having teacher aides in every classroom is the answer to aggro kids.
New numbers out today show that New Zealand students have been restrained more than 9,000 times since 2023. That’s an average of 15 a day.
The vast majority happen at primary schools and, when we say they’ve been restrained, we’re talking about situations where there is an imminent threat of harm and no other options are available.
So picture that for a second: a school kid is behaving in such an aggressive or violent way that the only option available to their teacher is restraining them.
Physically stopping them from harming themselves or others. That goes on 15 times a day, on average.
Which is something not even the security guards down at Pak’nSave are allowed to do most of the time. But that’s what we’re expecting our school teachers to do.
It’s mad that we expect our teachers to step up and do that, and it’s mad to think that having a teacher aide in the classroom, as well as a teacher, would make any difference.
Because, quite often, we’re not talking here about kids losing their rag. We’re talking about kids who have suffered all sorts of trauma or abuse. And do you really think a kindly teacher aide in every classroom is going to stop them from losing it?
Of course not.
Which is why I think we need to seriously think about what some people might say is the unthinkable, especially here in New Zealand.
Security guards in schools.
Because this isn’t just a behaviour issue. This is a workplace health and safety issue and a public safety issue.
It’s a public safety issue because we know the rest of the kids in these classrooms where this is happening are at some sort of risk, because restraints only happen when there is an imminent threat of danger.
As for the workplace health and safety side of it, why should teachers be forced to put themselves in such risky situations?
I’m not exaggerating here when I say that, if nothing meaningful is done about this, it could be fatal for some teacher.
You imagine how stressful some of these situations must be, not to mention the physical exertion that must be required to get these kids under control, and what that could do to the old ticker.
Not surprisingly, some are blaming the parents of these kids for what’s going on.
But I think that view is way too simplistic. Because, yes, there are some parents who are hopeless when it comes to discipline.
But the kids we’re talking about here aren’t necessarily the products of no-hopers.
Some of the kids being restrained will be neurodivergent, through no fault of their own, or their parents.
Some of the kids being restrained will have suffered abuse and trauma, through no fault of their own, or their parents.
So, we can blame the parents as much as we like. But that won’t make teachers any safer.
And I think the only way to do that, to make teachers safer at work and keep kids safer at school, is to have security guards on site.
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