Underfunding leading to violence, unsafe Ontario schools: Union

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Teeth knocked out.

Bites to necks and faces.

Punches to the head.

“I was attacked with scissors; as I am blocking, I get punched in the head instead,” said Rebecca Avey, an educational assistant with the Thames Valley District school board who was off work for a year recovering, on the eve of the release of a new union report about Ontario’s education system.

“I would like to say that is a rarity; it is not,” said Avey, president of CUPE Local 7575 that represents educational assistants (EAs) and instructional assistants with Thames Valley board. “I don’t think communities and parents know what is transpiring in their child’s schools.”

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Avey said her injury was the result of systemic underfunding by the provincial government.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) estimates the Thames Valley school board is facing a $93.7 million cut in per-pupil funding in 2024-25 and the London District Catholic school board is facing a $31.23 million cut due to the provincial government not taking into account inflation and other pressures.

CUPE represents 57,000 education workers in Ontario.

Educational assistant Paul Nagy said he lost a tooth after being attacked by a student.

“Violence in the classroom is worse than people realize,” he said. “I don’t come to school to get punched and kicked and have stuff thrown at me. That is an everyday situation in most schools. It’s traumatizing.”

A recent survey by the Canadian Union of Public Employees of Ontario’s education workers found:

• 84 per cent of respondents say they experience violent or disruptive incidents in their work area
• 42 per cent  of members who experience violent or disruptive incidents say they experience such an incident every day
• 61 per cent of respondents say their work area is sometimes evacuated because of a violent or disruptive incident
• 9.9 per cent say an evacuation happens every day
• 96.9 per cent of educational assistants and child and youth workers experience violent or disruptive incidents in their workplace
• 83.9 per cent of educational assistants and child and youth workers areas are evacuated at least sometimes
• 16 per cent say it happens every day.

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Joe Tigani, president of the Ontario School Board Council of Unions, London-area CUPE local presidents and education assistants are gathering Wednesday in London to raise awareness about what they call “a crumbling education system” and officially release the new report.

“It’s significant understaffing, significant cuts to per-pupil funding,” Avey said.

She said after her recovery she went back to work with the same student in the same classroom.

“It’s the not the fault of the student, parents or community,” she said. “Had we been staffed properly the student would have been able to access support.”

Many parents are unaware of what is happening in the classroom because “kids don’t come home and talk about it anymore,” Nagy said.

“The students are absolutely suffering, they really are, it’s not the world we knew school to be,” he said. “But this is all they know; they know lock-down drills.

“It’s become normalized.”

And, it is not just education workers who are bearing the brunt of the underfunding.

Students, Avey said, are being “housed rather than taught.

“Students are falling behind in an academic system,” she said.

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hrivers@postmedia.com

@HeatheratLFP

Statement from Minister of Education Jill Dunlop:

“No other government has invested more in education,” she said. “Since 2018, our government has increased public education funding to historic levels including on student mental health and safety, special education and supporting the hiring of over 9,000 education staff to support student achievement.

“We have and will continue to increase funding in education every single year of our mandate to support students and teachers, but school boards need to act as responsible stewards of public dollars, balance their budgets and ensure money meant for the classroom, get to the classroom.”

Ministry of Education officials say:

• Since 2018, the Thames Valley school board has seen an increase of $263.9 million or 31 per cent in core education funding, while student enrolment rose by 11 per cent in the same timeframe.
• At the end of 2023-24, the Thames Valley board was sitting on more than $20.5 million in unused renewal and improvement funding.
• Since 2018, the London District Catholic school board has seen an increase of $128.6 million or 56 per cent in core education funding, while student enrolment rose by 38.6 per cent in the same timeframe
• At the end of 23-24, the London District Catholic board was sitting on more than $400,000 in unused renewal and improvement funding.

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