Teachers are suffering concussions and other serious injuries while trying to do their jobs in classrooms across the province, and a solution has yet to be offered.
Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation President Harvey Bischof told 1310 NEWS' The Rick Gibbons Show in Ottawa it's time for the government to dedicate more resources and attention to the issue.
He thinks an uptick in violence can be attributed to a change in the composition of classrooms.
Bischof explained that children with additional needs are being integrated into classrooms, but they're not coming with the extra support they need. He added that many students were inappropriately excluded from classrooms in the past, but now that they're in, they need more support.
Another problem is that school administrators hear about violent incidents from teachers but often persuade them not to formally report anything, as they fear bad publicity for the school.
In the meantime, many teachers are reaching the end of their ropes, dealing with anxiety over kids or themselves becoming victims in their own classrooms.
Bischof called classroom violence a "significantly serious problem."
Listen to the full conversation with Bischof:
