Violence Against Teachers Growing Issue in WA Public Schools

According to information compiled and released by KIRO 7 in Seattle, violence against teachers in WA state is a growing issue.

One incident involved a 12-year-old girl assaulting a teacher

 KIRO TV, along with other Cox Media outlets surveyed over 8,000 teachers nationwide. Of the 1,150 in WA who responded to the questionnaire, 67 percent said they've had some sort of violent act committed against them by a student. And, it's enough of a growing problem that they are considering leaving the profession. Overall, 79 percent said they'd had some sort of physical altercation.

Among the survey and incident information, the study revealed the case of a 12-year-old student in Renton, who on March 30, 2023, violently attacked a teacher with such force she had to be taken to the hospital. KIRO says the child was sentenced to 15 to 36 weeks in a detention center and has since been released.

Get our free mobile app

In the case of the Renton teacher, she knew she was getting a student in her class who had been having some difficulty, but things escalated during a class discussion about economics. The teacher and class were talking about things a person needed money to pay for such as food, phones etc. and the girl said she needed money for knives and guns.

Just prior to the assault on the teacher, the student picked up a chair and appeared to be ready to throw it. According to KIRO, some telling comments came from a variety of teachers concerning the declining levels of discipline:

"One theme KIRO 7 found in the survey results – many teachers feel the discipline system in Washington State is not working. Dozens of teachers filled out an optional comment box to share their sentiments.

“Our school does not have an effective discipline policy,” said a Seattle Public Schools teacher.

“The State continues to make it harder to suspend or even remove disruptive/aggressive students from our classes,” said a teacher in the Puyallup school district."