Tioga teachers are training to handle violent classroom-situations

Violent student-behavior against teachers in classrooms is becoming more and more common.

School districts across North Dakota are preparing to handle situations that get out of control, while minimizing injury and staying within legal boundaries.

Tioga Public School District #15 held a Teacher Safety in the Classroom training-session Tuesday using a grant from Hess Corporation.

More than 50 K-12 teachers learned from the North Dakota Safety Council that they have the same right to self-defense in the classroom as they would anywhere else.

The instructor trained teacher to spot early signs of aggression, use non-violent intervention and if there is a physical assault, handle it with minimal injury to themselves and the student.

Statistics from the American Psychological Association show 6 percent of public school teachers reported being physically attacked by students, and 80 percent reported being victimized within the last year. Those numbers have been rising, and the reasons behind them vary.

“The increasing number of kids on various types of medication has been floated, and kids are under more mental-health stresses due to social-media pressures from peers. There definitely seems to be less of an ability by students today to handle the difficulties that life is going to throw to them,” said Don Moseman, North Dakota Safety Council master instructor.

Moseman says one of teachers’ biggest challenges is getting parents of some of those children to recognize what is happening, and become involved in the remediation.

Since 2014, Tioga is the 26th school district in the state that has held training sessions on handling classroom violence.