Schools say threats of violence, misbehavior rising; What could be to blame

DAYTON — With students out of remote learning, some schools said they’re seeing more incidents of violence.

Hitting, screaming, all-out brawls — teachers are saying students’ bad behavior is like they’ve never seen it before.

This year is the hardest and most dangerous year of many teachers’ careers Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association said.

DiMauro told News Center 7′s Candace Price that in some schools the number of fights and acts of violence are on the rise, but looking at the data you wouldn’t know it.

The Ohio Department of Education reports from 2019-2020 Miami Valley schools saw over 800 disciplinary incidents of emergency removal from school and over 100 expulsions.

While data from 2020-2021 shows only around 400 incidents of emergency removal and 65 expulsions.

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“As you’re looking at data there’s always going to be a lag in terms of what’s being reported,” DiMauro said.

But DiMauro said there is one area where the data is spot on.

He said that Ohio schools saw a spike in chronic absenteeism last year.

The Ohio Department of Education reports a 95 percent attendance rate in 2019-2020, in 2020-2021 the attendance rate was 92 percent.

“When we have kids that were just not in school for an extended period of time, they really missed out on opportunities for socialization,” DiMauro said.

He said this is especially true when it comes to the youngest learners.

For many young students, their entire experience of school has been since the pandemic started.

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But not all schools are seeing the same thing when it comes to students’ behavior.

“What we are seeing puts a spotlight on inequities in the system,” DiMauro said, “you have more acute challenges where you have students coming to school from poverty,” DiMauro said.

DiMauro said it’s important to not criminalize students’ misbehavior, instead, he recommends well-trained school resource officers and dealing with staffing shortages.

He also said it’s key to have clear expectations for students.

Staffing shortages result in fewer people available to provide supervision DiMauro said.

One solution schools are looking at is hiring more staff especially mental health professionals.

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