Assaults on JCPS educators appear rare. But teachers say they don't always report them

A string of violent student-teacher altercations has made headlines and dominated social media feeds lately, but assaults on teachers are relatively rare in Kentucky's largest district. 

Of the nearly 2,000 times teachers and staff reported physical contact with students this year, 71 were considered assaults, according to district data. 

Assaults, according to JCPS' student handbook, require students to cause physical injury to another person.

The remaining 96% of reports consist of intentional, but not harmful, contact labeled as "striking." 

Most of the incidents happen with the district's youngest learners, who may not have the strength to hurt an adult. About one-third of reports come from schools that work with students with severe special needs. 

The figures still point to difficult situations inside schools, particularly those that educate high-needs populations. And an ongoing survey of teachers suggests most educators don't report incidents, potentially skewing the numbers.

Heightened focus on teacher assaults comes as JCPS is rethinking how it handles school safety. 

After the school board axed school resource officer contracts in August, the district is hustling to building an in-house security team for schools. 

At the same time, the district is pushing to decrease behavior referrals and suspensions, along with the racial disparities that come with them. 

JCPS officials, like many in peer districts, are struggling to balance the immediate safety of their staff with addressing the root trauma behind behavior outbursts, while also trying to avoid inflicting new trauma on students. 

"Putting a child out of school may give staff at least a break away from that child," Superintendent Marty Pollio said Wednesday, "but it is not getting at the root cause of that problem." 

Background:Teacher-student fight at Iroquois High leads to questions on assaults

'Do we think we're doing enough?'

Linda Duncan, a retired educator who is now on the JCPS board, first brought up teacher assaults in September after a friend was hit. 

The number she got back from the district was "stunning" to her. Teachers and staff reported more than 6,300 instances of having physical contact with students in the 2018-19 year.

She brought up the figure at a school board meeting, imploring district officials to do something. 

A series of student-teacher altercations have grabbed headlines in the following weeks.

A teacher at Seneca High School was hit in the head with a glass beaker. A principal was hit as he tried to break up a fight of six students.

And Monday, a video of a student and teacher fist-fighting at Iroquois High School left a student arrested and a teacher under investigation. 

Duncan said students who hit teachers should be removed from their home school and sent to an alternative school.

"If students aren’t removed, they will continue to do worse things," she said. "Staff being assaulted is unacceptable."

The data Duncan cites, while accurate, includes instances of intentional but not harmful "striking."

JCPS had more than 108,000 behavior events — anything from assaults to bringing tobacco to school — during the 2018-19 school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Only 1% of those counted as "assault or violence." The number listed by the Education Department — 1,075 — is roughly one-sixth of the number cited by Duncan. It also includes incidents not involving faculty. 

Read this:Officials say Iroquois High principal struck in face by girl during student riot

For context, JCPS educates more than 98,000 students and employs more than 6,000 teachers.

Chris Kolb, the school board vice chairman, called the most recent Iroquois incident "very disturbing" but said the data Duncan uses is "insanely inflated." 

"The reality is that JCPS, so far this year, has had 71 total assaults, which don't get me wrong, is far too many," he said. 

Duncan said Kolb is minimizing the issue. The district and board need to recognize the "attacks" and get students "away from all their friends who may be egging on their violent outbursts."

Preliminary responses to an ongoing survey from the teachers union suggest the full picture isn't contained in district data.

As of Oct. 24, about half of 2,200 teachers who took the survey said they had been assaulted in school at least once. Two-thirds of those teachers did not report the incident. 

The survey does not define assault, leaving the response to the teacher's discretion. 

Around 65% of respondents said they're concerned about being assaulted in school. 

The fear is not abnormal, Jefferson County Teachers Association Vice President Tammy Berlin said. 

A previous union survey on student behavior supports an underlying rebuttal from teachers: Despite decreased suspensions and referrals, behavior is not improving, Berlin said. 

Including the more minor instances of striking misconstrues the situation, Kolb said, and can potentially feed into "anecdotal narratives" against schools, races and JCPS itself.

Iroquois, for example, has seen at least three student-teacher altercations in October. It has had eight assaults reported this school year, the second highest in the district behind Pleasure Ridge Park High School, which has 12. 

Iroquois serves a disproportionately disadvantaged student population compared with the district average. About 80% of its students live in poverty, with about 100 considered homeless, according to district data. 

See also:New test scores show stark differences in JCPS schools' achievement

It is among the lowest performing schools in the state, and it is a comprehensive support and improvement school targeted for state assistance. As such, its students bring a significant amount of trauma to school with them, which can manifest itself as a number of behavior issues, including assaults. 

To help with the root causes of behavior, JCPS made mental health practitioners available in each school. The district is ramping up restorative justice efforts, training teachers about trauma and positive behavior reinforcement.

Educators in the district have "way more supports" to help with behavior than a few years ago, JCPS spokeswoman Renee Murphy said. 

School administrators need to be more collaborative in creating school-level plans to address behavior issues, Berlin said. District initiatives need to include more training and resources to be fully implemented, she said.

JCPS is in the process of identifying additional supports for Iroquois, Murphy said. 

"A school like Iroquois, that has kids coming in with so much trauma and from such difficult backgrounds, needs a lot of support with mental health," Kolb said.

"Do we think we're doing enough for Iroquois?"

Role of school security officers

Kolb said he is "glad" a school resource officer wasn't present at Iroquois on Monday. 

The recent string of assaults "make me more confident that SROs are not the way to go," he said. 

Having a police officer in the building during fights could escalate situations, he said. "Honestly, I think it would have been worse" with an officer present, he added. 

Kolb is one of three board members who voted against renewing SRO contracts in August, causing the contracts to fail and schools to start the year without security. 

JCPS is scrambling to build an in-house security team to fill the void. A project manager to expedite the team's creation started with the district Tuesday. 

Many on social media blamed the recent assaults on the lack of school security, saying police are needed to prevent and dissuade such behavior.

Pollio, the superintendent, said Tuesday he didn't believe having an SRO at the school would have prevented the fight. 

Teachers often try to talk their students out of fighting each other, high school teacher Andrew Bailey said. Once a fight turns physical, teachers used to be able to call SROs or other school security.

Now, they're beginning to intervene themselves, he suggested.

See also:'Surprise,' 'disappointment' follow move to drop school resource officers

The appearance of an uptick in students hitting teachers could be coming from getting stuck in the crossfire of a student fight, Bailey said. 

"We are working with human beings," Bailey said. "Human beings are unpredictable." 

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Yates told The Courier Journal Tuesday that officers visit Iroquois regularly, despite the end of the SRO contracts.

Having police in schools can cause more students, particularly students of color, to become involved in the justice system early, Kolb has said.

Black students are nearly four times more likely to be arrested on JCPS campuses than whites, per state data. 

"People think it's a solution and talk about it as a solution, but it's not a real solution," Kolb said of SROs. "It often makes people feel like they're doing something to address the issue.

"But I'm not interesting in feeling like we're addressing the issue. I'm interested in actually addressing the issue." 

Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4471, and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth. Support strong local journalism by subscribing: courier-journal.com/subscribe.