Classroom violence is escalating inside one Massachusetts district while administrators are ignoring or downplaying its scope, a staffer argued at a recent school committee meeting.
“In my five-and-a-half years thus far working as an ed assistant in the Taunton Public schools, I have submitted seven incident reports regarding myself getting injured by means of a student’s violence,” said Ashley Patenaude at the Dec. 17 meeting, as reported by the Taunton Daily Gazette.
“That’s more than once per year.”
Patenaude’s testimony directly contradicted a Dec. 4 statement by the district’s superintendent, John Cabral, responding to requests for “a new contract for secretaries, lunch assistants and other staff members,” the news outlet reported.
“No employee should ever be punched, kicked, or put in harm’s way, and whenever an incident occurs, we take it seriously,” Cabral said in the statement. “It is also important to note that these situations are not the norm.”
