90% of teachers victims of violence in classrooms: FAE survey

“We are here to teach, not to be beaten up. Like any other worker, we have the right to work without being subjected to violence.”

This heartfelt cry came from Catherine Renaud, vice-president of the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), as she presented the shocking results of a survey on Monday showing that 90 per cent of respondents reported being victims of some form of violence.

More specifically, 81 per cent reported being victims of psychological or verbal abuse in their workplace, nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) reported experiencing physical abuse, and one in ten (11 per cent) said they had experienced sexual abuse. We can deduce from this data that many people have experienced more than one type of abuse.

Incentive to leave the profession

“It is totally unacceptable that violence should be part of teachers’ daily lives,” says  Renaud.

“Stress, loss of sleep, decreased self-esteem and motivation, burnout, depression, and work stoppages are among the most commonly cited repercussions by respondents. Three out of five teachers who responded to the consultation and who have experienced acts of violence are considering leaving the teaching profession,” she said.

“The situation is urgent, we must act,” she pleaded.

“It is not true that violence should be part of our job, and clearly, imposing the use of formal language in January is not going to eradicate violence in our schools and centers,” argued  Renaud.

Physical violence: especially in preschool

It would be tempting to believe that this violence is mainly present among teenagers in high school. However, this is not the case. It is in preschool that the most physical violence is reported, with no less than 90 per cent of respondents reporting that they have been subjected to it. At this level, 85 per cent of teachers report having been hit, 75 per cent say they have been injured, and 65 per cent have been pushed around.

“Unfortunately, what we hear too often is: he’s just a little kid, a four- or five-year-old preschooler, it can’t hurt that much,” laments the union representative. Among the testimonials released by the FAE during this consultation, one reads: “During his tantrums, my preschool student hit me, bit me, kicked me, and headbutted me. Another time, he threw a large object at my head, causing me to suffer a minor head injury.”

‘There is less bullying, but more hitting’

In secondary school, psychological and verbal abuse are more prevalent, with 81 per cent of teachers reporting that they have been victims, while bullying is more common in vocational training and adult education. As for primary school, take your pick. All forms of violence are reported.

This is not the first time that the FAE has conducted this type of consultation, and according to Catherine Renaud, “the acts may be less numerous in certain forms, but the severity and recurrence of the acts is really very, very shocking. There is less threatening and less intimidation, but more hitting and more injuries.”

She notes that it is not uncommon to see classes where students have to leave every other day because one student is disruptive and both the other students and the teacher need to be protected.

Impact of integration

This problem of entire classes being repeatedly disrupted by a single student can undoubtedly be linked to the policy of integration at all costs without providing the necessary support staff, explains  Renaud. “The mass integration of students with disabilities or adjustment and learning difficulties into regular classrooms without the necessary resources is problematic, and we really need to look at the notion of excessive constraint.”

“When a student arrives in the classroom and there is no support available, and then he or she begins to disrupt the class and threaten the physical and psychological integrity of the other students in the class, as well as that of the teachers, we have to ask ourselves whether this student is in the right place.”

Lack of specialized staff

This issue of resources is central to the solution, according to the FAE, which is urgently calling on Education Minister Sonia LeBel “to invest the necessary funds unconditionally so that schools can hire the essential specialized staff and resources. This includes psychologists, special education technicians, psychoeducators, and speech therapists, among others, and that codes of conduct and plans to combat bullying and violence be enforced.”

Ultimately, she says, teachers cannot be disciplinarians, and “when we allow acts of violence like this to go unpunished, what we are doing is trivializing the situation, failing to support teachers, and ultimately telling students that it’s okay because they won’t face the necessary corrective measures.”

Future citizens

This, she points out, is a serious trivialization of violence that is very worrying for the future “because we are educating the citizens of tomorrow, and what message are we sending them? That violence is not such a big deal after all.”

But before thinking about the future, there is an urgent issue in the present: “When we deprive students and staff of specialized personnel to deal with violence, we are putting these people at risk.”

The online consultation took place from April 28 to May 26, 2025, among FAE member teachers, of whom there are 65,000 in the Montreal, Quebec City, Laval, Outaouais, Laurentians, Eastern Townships, and Montérégie regions. 2,443 teachers responded to the questionnaire, and the margin of error associated with a probabilistic sample of this size is 1.94 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews