Teacher Victimization and Safety: Exploring Policies, Strategies, and School Relational Variables That Social Workers Can Leverage to Enhance School Safety for All

Background. Public concern and social work efforts surrounding violence in schools have largely focused on peer-to-peer violence and school shootings. However, recent research has explored school staff victimization by students: e.g., teacher victimization has a negative influence on professional functioning, job satisfaction, and turnover, and is linked to negative behavioral and educational outcomes for students including high‐risk behavior, lower academic achievement, and reduced school engagement. The aim of this study was to address current gaps in knowledge regarding teacher victimization that can inform school social work interventions by a) exploring unique experiences of victimization and feeling unsafe in school; b) identifying school-level factors that could explain teacher victimization and feeling unsafe in school; and c) considering how the existence of school policies and addressing positive discipline, hardening strategies, and positive behavioral strategies impact teachers’ reports of victimization and safety.

Methods. This study is part of a larger set of studies conducted by The American Psychological Association Task Force on Violence against Educators and School Personnel. The Task Force partnered with national professional organizations to distribute online questionnaires to school staff, including teachers, psychologists, social workers, and others). This analysis focused on 6,643 Pre-K-12 teachers stratified across regions, urbanicity, and school level. Bivariate analyses examined teacher and school characteristics and teacher reports of victimization and feeling unsafe. A path analysis examined the relationships between school responses to safety and discipline, teacher interactions with students, and teacher reports of victimization and feeling unsafe.

Results. Teachers reported multiple kinds of victimization, including obscene remarks or gestures and having their property or school property damaged or stolen. About a third of the teachers reported being intimidated, threatened, and having objects thrown at them. A small percentage of teachers were threatened with a weapon. Teacher reports of victimization were distinct from reports of feeling unsafe. Teachers reported specific locations that were unsafe, including hallways, classrooms, the cafeterias, and parking lots. Transitions between classes, during class time, and in the evenings were the most frequently reported times that teachers felt unsafe. In our final path analyses, positive discipline (how the school handles discipline) had a strong direct impact on safety and victimization. Positive discipline also indirectly reduced teachers’ maltreatment of students, increased positive teacher-child relationships, and decreased preferential treatment of students by teachers.

Implications. One key finding is that teacher experiences of victimization are different from feelings of safety, and that feelings of safety vary within schools. For instance, teachers in high schools reported less victimization than those in elementary and middle/junior high schools but reported higher levels of feeling unsafe. Positive discipline practices had the strongest direct impact on teacher interactions with students and on teachers’ reports of safety and victimization. Positive discipline reduced maltreatment of students and preferential treatment of students by teachers and increased positive behaviors towards students. These findings should inform school social work efforts to understand and respond to violence by decreasing victimization and improving safety are school organizational issues rather than solely interpersonal issues.