My first-hand view of school violence

There's always been violence in schools, but I don't remember people settling their scores with weapons. Just days after Ryan Lutes and the NSTU called on government to do something, I happened to see what 92 percent of teachers say they've witnessed firsthand.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Well, you know that feeling whenyou learn a new word and then you
start hearing it everywhere, or maybeyou buy a red car and then you
notice how many other red cars thereare just like yours. Well, this
isn't anything like that has to dowith violence in schools, and I had
a firsthand experience with it late lastweek. Happened just days after the president
of the No Scars of Teachers unionsaid eighty seven percent of teachers and educational

(00:23):
specialists in this province believe that schoolviolence is increasince twenty eighteen. Now here's
what happened. Friday afternoon. Mykids, they've been out of public school
for years, and early that morningI headed to my mechanics to get an
oil change, and driving past theelementary and middle school in our community,
I noticed all the cars parked alongthe road and on the school grounds.
And then when I got home,I looked it up and found it was
an in service day and they musthave been holding an event at Heaville Academy

(00:46):
based on all of the people whowere there. Now, I was around
eight in the morning. Later thatafternoon, I got into town to get
a few groceries for taco night andmy journey back home took me past the
school again. Now I don't knowif you've ever noticed the signs in school
zones in Nova Scotia, but theysay the speed limit is reduced when kids
are present, not during school hoursor even on school days, just that

(01:07):
you need to slow down when yousee kids in the school grounds. And
Friday afternoon, around five thirty,I noticed kids out front of the school,
and as I was slowing down,I saw one kid on top of
another kid on the ground, flailingaway and punching them repeatedly and hard.
I honked my harm so I cameto stop the kid on the top,
and the crowd of about six orseven others all looked up, and then

(01:30):
he went right back to work onthe other kid. You know, by
then I was kind of invested.Pulled into the school parking lot stop,
my car jumped out, and yes, later that evening I thought of all
the things that could have gone wrong, But in the moment I was about
to intervene in someone else's fight thatI had not been invited to. And
lucky for me, they complied,and they broke it up, and the

(01:51):
guy in the ground got up andthat's when they started accusing the guy who
was taking a beating of pulling outa knife. And yes, I did
see what appeared to be the outlineof an in one of the other scrapper's
hoodie pocket. These weren't elementary schoolaged people, I'd say high school,
but clearly the biggest of the kidshad started walking away as soon as they
gotten out of my car. Idon't really know exactly what had prompted.

(02:13):
The fight wasn't even really a fight, it was a beating. However,
the one who took the worst ofit had apparently called the other fellow on
and they were meeting there to settlewhatever score they seemed in need of accounting
for. Other than a split lipand a few contusions. I think the
two of them will survive, butagain, knowing that they showed up what
weapons, seems a bit problematic.Clearly it could have escalated and I would

(02:35):
have unknowingly stepped in the middle ofa knife fight. Yeah, stupid on
my part, but I really justcouldn't believe what I was watching. According
to the Province, there were thirteenthousand, seven hundred and seventy six incidents
of physical violence in public schools lastyear, and the survey says ninety two
percent of teachers have witnessed violence firsthand. Something needs to be done about this.
What exactly which I had the answer. I'm Sheldon McCloud for Saltwire