Efforts underway in school divisions to address safety concerns

School leaders say they’re staffing up, scaling training and prioritizing post-incident debriefs to address employees’ concerns about violence.

“When we want to include everyone in our society, it’s hard work. It’s a lot easier to exclude people,” said Matt Henderson, superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division, the largest in the province, with more than 30,000 students.

The division needs to provide safe working environments for roughly 4,000 employees while balancing the rights of students, more of whom have complex needs, Henderson said.

Jenness Moffatt and Dan Ward, co-presidents of the provincial association of superintendents, echoed those comments in a joint statement.

School divisions across the province are using non-violent crisfis intervention and other protocols designed to de-escalate situations, the duo said.

The superintendents said provincial protocols emphasize the importance of taking “proactive, whole-school approaches to supporting students with learning and behavioural needs.”

In the Winnipeg School Division, efforts are underway to educate staff about neurodiversity — the idea that there is no single right way of thinking, learning and behaving — and “behaviour as communication,” Henderson said.

Educational assistants, who will have 10 designated professional development days at the end of their new contract, are participating in specific training on the subject.

“Occasionally in schools, there are big events when students are dysregulated, and that’s when teams come together with family (to reflect),” the superintendent said, adding caregivers and school staff can then consider what tools they have to remain calm in tense situations.

“We’re never going to help a child regulate themselves if we’re dysregulated as the adult.”

The Manitoba School Boards Association issued a statement saying its members take safety concerns seriously and many have expanded staff training and support in response.

The association said it’s working with education faculties to ensure teacher candidates are equipped with classroom management and prevention strategies.

Both the superintendent and school board advocacy groups suggested enhanced reporting could be useful, but neither committed Friday to endorsing the teachers’ union’s new proposal to establish a universal incident reporting system.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said she is meeting with the Manitoba Teachers’ Society soon to discuss ways to strengthen how incidents are tracked and addressed.

Education workers deserve safe workplaces and students deserve safe, supportive learning environments, Schmidt said in a statement.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca