An Ohio State University researcher says one in five teachers do not report incidents of violence they experience in their classroom. While the statistic may be alarming, the lack of data available about the issue is a bigger concern for academics.
Ohio State University professor and researcher Eric Anderman conducted the nationwide survey funded by the American Psychological Association. He says it’s the first of its kind to focus specifically on violence experienced by teachers.
Twenty percent of respondents said they didn’t report physical or verbal abuse or threats of abuse by a student to an administrator, but they are more likely to tell a colleague.
Anderman says nationally, there’s little to no data gathered about violence against teachers, so researchers don’t know how widespread the problem is.
“It could be the case that schools don’t want to report these things because they don’t want to look like the school is unsafe. So, we don’t know how much of a problem it, but we know it’s more than people realize.”
Without a grasp on the prevalence of the issue, Anderman says researchers cannot determine if violence pushes teachers from or prevents people from entering the profession.
