Posted on 07/16/2026 6:49:45 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Student violence in many of our nation’s schools is out of control. An Education Week teacher survey, whose results were released in March, found that 35 percent of respondents said classroom behavior was “a lot worse” than last year. It’s not just children fighting with each other; teachers are often on the receiving end of assaults.
Examples of student violence against teachers are common. In southern California, as reported by the Long Beach Post in June, a Carver Elementary School teacher left school with “major purple marks” after students hit, pinched, bit, and scratched her.
In an explosive moment, one child headbutted her so hard that part of her vision went dark. She went to the emergency room and learned she had an eye injury that permanently altered her eyesight, causing floating dots and flashing lights.
Near Boston, a Roxbury teacher asked an eighth grader to pay attention—and was punched, leaving multiple bruises. A nurse at a Dorchester school sustained a concussion and a pinched nerve after being attacked by a student.
Nationwide, surveys indicate that 6 percent to 10 percent of U.S. K-12 teachers are physically attacked by students each year, and an additional 10 percent to 45 percent experience verbal threats or harassment.
While the problem is currently garnering significant media attention, it is not new. A 2014 survey by the American Psychological Association Classroom Violence Directed Against Teachers Task Force found that a stunning 44 percent of educators declared that students physically attacked them. More than half of the surveyed educators reported that pupils destroyed personal property (computers, cars, phones, etc.).
What is the reason for the rampant violence?
Many teachers say parental support is key and that parents need to do a better job of reining in their kids.
While soft or neglectful parenting is certainly part of the problem, schools must also accept responsibility. In that vein, about 50 percent of educators said that tougher consequences for students, such as expulsions, are needed. Unfortunately, many schools don’t pursue that approach.
Administrators’ response has weakened, many teachers explain, because they have to go through eight or nine steps before they can even consider sending the kid to the office.
Also, many schools still use the discredited—and teacher union-supported—restorative justice procedure. This racially motivated, 50-year-old regimen emphasizes “making the victim and offender whole” and involves “an open discussion of feelings.” It arose in the 1970s because black students were far more likely to be suspended than those of other ethnicities. The implication, of course, is that white teachers and administrators tend to be racist. But the racial bean counters never explain why the racial disparity persists even in schools where black principals and staff predominate.
In addition, the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) approach, also supported by the two national teachers’ unions, remains widely used. This system, a touchy-feely, new-age idea from the 1990s, aims to create a “framework for creating safe, positive, equitable schools, where every student can feel valued, connected to the school community, and supported by caring adults.”
The practitioners claim that by applying “evidence-based practices within a PBIS framework, schools promote students’ academic, social, emotional, and behavioral success, collaborate with families to develop locally meaningful and culturally relevant outcomes, and use data to make informed decisions that enhance overall effectiveness.”
But PBIS has not helped. Neetu Arnold, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, recently wrote, “When I began asking teachers about PBIS, I heard no shortage of complaints. Educators described how it drove disruptive classrooms, undermined their authority, and made effective teaching nearly impossible. Yet when I spoke with PBIS trainers and reviewed official materials, the disconnect was striking: trainers insisted that the teacher accounts didn’t reflect the structured framework they endorsed.”
Student suspensions, a longtime disciplinary measure, are looked down upon these days. In fact, California prohibits suspensions for low-level misbehavior, such as willful disobedience. Similarly, Massachusetts sets prerequisites for suspensions, directing administrators not to suspend pupils as a consequence until alternative remedies have been tried and documented. In practice, this makes suspension a last resort rather than a baseline tool for classroom management.
Suspensions don’t always work, however. When I taught middle school in the 1990s and 2000s, I found that suspending an out-of-control student made it easier to teach willing learners, but it didn’t always improve the miscreant’s behavior. Upon their return to class after a suspension, I always asked the disruptors how they spent their time out of school. All too often, the reply was a shrug, followed by “Watched TV.” In those cases, it was hardly an effective punishment.
My school, however, was fortunate to have Mr. Thomas as the school’s guidance counselor and discipline dean. He was a former Marine drill sergeant, and his approach was old-school. When misbehaving students were sent to him, he would make them stand facing the front of the room for an hour or two without speaking. He also kept the room a few degrees warmer than necessary. This discouraged pupils from engaging in antisocial behavior when they were threatened with a visit to Mr. Thomas. But few schools have ex-military personnel in the counseling office.
As a result of the upsurge in student violence, many teachers are considering leaving the profession. About 20 percent of educators across the U.S. said they plan to leave their jobs before school starts in the fall, according to June data from the Rand Corp.’s 2026 State of the American Teacher and the American Life Panel surveys. Misbehaving students are cited as the top stressor.
In Wisconsin, teacher resignations are at an all-time high, with students’ disorderly behavior cited as a top reason.
The problem is particularly acute in California, where a recent survey found that 40 percent of teachers plan to retire or quit in the next 10 years, with many citing declining behavioral standards as the primary reason.
In sum, schools must do a better job of disciplining disruptive and violent students. Both offenders and well-behaved students aren’t being properly educated. Additionally, many teachers are fed up and are leaving the profession.
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
The teachers may want to look in the mirror. They have been trained in college to teach students in ways to destroy the fabric of society and social norms. This is what you get....chaos.
The behavior is worse because the students are allowed to get away with it.
Put reform schools right next to the renewed insane asylums. Expel the violent ones from “public” education and right into reform school like it used to be. Even the military no longer needs complete animals who shun and bite the hand that makes their existence so comfortable.
Tangent point: we don't have a gun problem; we have a behavior problem.
So many of these stories come back to the issue of adults not being adults and enforcing discipline. Kids need discipline. If they go wild, then need consequences. If that doesn’t happen at home, it needs to happen at school. If the teacher can’t discipline the kid with threats of detention or other traditional school punishments - perhaps because the kids are threatening violence - then the police need to be brought in and the kids need to be treated like criminals. Its the same with the articles we read about kids brawling in fast food restaurants. Arrest the kids and put them in juvenile hall. But unfortunately, we are in an age when all adults seem able to do is wring their hands and talk about what they can’t do rather than doing something to stop the problem.
When I was in school in the ‘60s, many of the teachers were veterans of WWII and/or Korea. I don’t recall any incidents of students physically attacking teachers.
Federal dollars to local school districts for each and every ass in the seat.
Consequently they are loathe to expel anyone, for any reason. This is why they really really like illegal aliens as well. The court holds that Citizens are on the hook financially to pay for the cost of invaders. It’s all just insane.
The biggest problem is the parents. They don’t raise their kids — they think the day care will do it, the elementary school will do it, the high school will do it, the television will do it. Some parents expect public school teachers to toilet train the child. It’s downhill from there.
The “experts” who design curriculums (heavy on political indoctrination) are a big part of the problem.
The Administrators who don’t really care about either students or teachers are a problem.
The Teachers Unions are a problem.
And the teachers are a problem. I don’t know how other states handle it, but in MA, if you want to be a teacher, you need a Masters in Education. In order to teach math or history, for example, you need to spend years in higher education learning about creating lesson plans, classroom management, and critical race theory. But you don’t have to learn either math or history. Just teach the stuff you don’t know.
Public education is as broken as can be. At every level. Top to bottom.
In “certain” communities, the kids arrive in school almost feral. In other communities, the kids arrive not being able to speak English. That is where the chaos comes from, not all of it, gutless education administration is also to blame.
Put a bunch of third world animals into a class room and what do you expect to happen ??
Put a bunch of third world animals into a class room and what do you expect to happen ??
“...tougher consequences for students, such as expulsions, are needed.”
Why do they believe suspensions and expulsions are not acceptable or even desirable outcomes from the disruptive students point of view?
> The behavior is worse because the students are allowed to get away with it. <
Correct. I’m I retired urban high school teacher. Some administrators are racist DEI hires. They judge everything on the basis of race.
Most of the other administrators are all about statistics. And I don’t mean raising test scores. I mean reducing student suspensions. Reduce suspensions, and you’ll get performance bonuses and promotions.
Suspend disruptive students, and your career is on the fast track to nowhere.
Result? Disruptive students are sent right back to class.
I don’t know about suburban and rural schools. But urban public schools are way beyond saving.
There it is.
We have a particular subculture (or maybe two of them) that is a serious problem. Students from outside that subculture are much less likely to be problems.
But it’s politically incorrect to say that black culture is terminally corrupt ...
“The teachers may want to look in the mirror. They have been trained in college to teach students in ways to destroy the fabric of society and social norms. This is what you get....chaos.”
Bullshit. The problem is the parents.
TEACHERS UNION HEADQUARTERS
SNAP PROCESSING CENTER
How many times am I going have to reapply for SNAP benefits for Johnny?
Our system is every bit as bad as Johnny’s behavior.
Teachers aren't even allowed to defend themselves against assault with a deadly weapon.
It’s the demographics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.