08 07 25 Colo Office of School Safety Director Chris Harms on new Task Force survey

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's back to school season. However, that doesn't mean it's
always a positive time for teachers when it comes to
returning to the classroom.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
New survey from the Colorado Educator Safety Task Force that
surveyed over one thousand educators statewide shows that more than
half of the respondents suffered violence against them by students.
Joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline
is Office of School Safety Director Christine Harms. Chris, thank
you so much for your time this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
What were some of the other big takeaways that you
saw from this survey your initial reaction to some of
the results.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, first of all, before we did the survey, there
was very little data out there about this issue. We
just had anecdotal stories of situations that had occurred. So
we think this was important that we had gathered as
data and it was a very dedicated task force. We
were required to have seventeen people on it. They worked
through four different committees and in course ten months they

(00:56):
held twenty four meetings and they looked at this issue,
including that survey, and also found that some schools have
some things in place to mitigate this. They have crisis
response classroom teams that will go in if a teacher
is having a disregulated student. Others do have places like
zen dens and tap in and tap out rooms so

(01:20):
that people can get a break, both students and staff
if they need it, but that wasn't something that we
found everywhere. We also found that most of our special
ed teachers are trained in de escalation, but most of
the rest of the general education folks are not trained,
and that was a recommendation that came out of this
task force, along with making sure that they continue to

(01:43):
focus on a positive school climate and things like trauma
informed practices and restorative practices in the classrooms. We also
discovered that in some situations, schools don't have working two
way PA systems where a teacher can call out to
somebody for health and most many of our schools don't
have teachers with all teachers having radios, which would also

(02:06):
be helpful. We found out that over the last twenty years,
a lot of the alternative placements for students who need
extra support have just disappeared. So some of our schools
have dealt with that by having affective needs centers in
their buildings where they do have smaller class sizes and
specialty trained people to work with students who do need

(02:28):
more help excuse me, and folks talked about the fact
that they wanted a consistent discipline matrix and policies and
procedures that prioritize educator safety. We heard time and time
again that some folks were told, well, this is just
what you should expect in education, that you're going to
get injured on the job. And we don't think that

(02:50):
that is a good expectation.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Chris Rre, We're seeing more of these issues in the
elementary range, middle school, junior high range, or high school Rangers.
Does this issue traverse all those levels?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, it does traverse all the levels. But surprising to
all of us was a lot of these incidents are
happening in elementary schools. And keep in mind, I guess
some of the students can be a lot bigger by
the time they're in fifth and sixth grade, so that
they can do some pretty substantial damage. One of the
things I keep getting asked is are we talking about

(03:25):
like little tiny injuries? Are we talking about major things?
And this has run the gamut from people just getting slapped,
hit or punched all the way to broken bones and concussions.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Chris, when you're talking about assaults on teachers, I mean,
what kind of toll does this take, both obviously physically
but mentally for educators. Are we concerned that this is
going to escalate into more severe situations or teachers maybe
just not even wanting to come back to the classroom.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, that's exactly what we found that in some cases
teachers quit after they had these incidents happen to them.
And that was all so reflected in a national wide
research that was done by the American Psychological Association that
after these things happen, a number of people just decide
that they can't be in this field any longer.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Before you, when you were starting out this conversation, you said,
you now have some data on this, and you said
before you've had the anecdotal experiences of teachers in the classrooms.
But Chris, I'm wondering, have things possibly become worse, say
in the last five years, and I harken back to
the pandemic where we all kind of went through a
little bit of a mental health shake up and mess
up with that, or or has this been consistent And

(04:36):
to your point, we're just finally seeing it and have
reportable data on it.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Well, we can't definitively stay here in Colorado because we
don't have data before COVID. But that American psychological study
did start out before COVID and then looked at things
again after and they definitely saw an increase after COVID.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
In wrapping up with you, I know you named a
number of factors that are impacting teachers in our state.
But if you could name one thing that you would
like to statewide, maybe to wave wand and change this
in school districts safety, just to help in educator safety,
what would that be.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I think what the committee came up with is de
escalation training for everybody in the school would be a
really wise first move.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Office of School Safety Directors, Chris Harms, Thanks Chris, Thank you,