How often do students assault teachers and school personnel in North Carolina?

FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A student at Parkland High School in Forsyth County faces charges after video surfaced that appeared to show the student hitting a teacher repeatedly.

The video, which had begun circulating on social media, shows a student walking up to his teacher, swearing, yelling and slapping the teacher in the face twice.

On Tuesday, Juvenile Justice issued a secure custody order for one count of communicating threats and two counts of misdemeanor assault. The student has not been identified due to their age.

“All of us should be outraged when those who educate us can be assaulted,” said Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. in a statement. “We should hold those who teach and educate our children to the highest regard.”

To find out if cases like this are common in North Carolina, we took a look at a North Carolina Department of Public Instruction report that was submitted to the North Carolina General Assembly for the 2022-2023 school year. The report provides data on cases of crime and violence in schools.

Acts of crime

Across North Carolina’s 2,726 public schools, about 60% or 1,640 schools reported at least one act of crime committed during the 2022-2023 school year. Those acts could include assault, sex offense, bomb threats and possession of drugs, alcohol or weapons, among others. Of those 1,640 schools, about 61% reported one to five acts of crime and about 40% reported six or more.

One school, which NCDPI did not identify, reported 96 acts of crime within that one school year.

The schools that reported at least one act of crime averaged anywhere from 0.59 to 1,200 cases per 1,000 enrolled students. The average for these schools came out to just under nine acts of crime committed for every 1,000 students.

Assault on school personnel

Assault on school personnel was the third most reported form of crime and violence in North Carolina public schools after possession of controlled substances and possession of weapons. Statewide, there were 1,482 assaults by students against public school employees during the 2022-2023 school year.

Historically, that total has ranged from about 1,250 to about 1,500 incidents a year dating back to 2013-2014, excluding the pandemic years of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 when many schools switched to remote learning and saw significantly fewer incidents.

By grade level

The state breaks down that data by grade level, which shows that more than a third of the assaults on school personnel happened in elementary schools while about a quarter each happened in middle and high schools.

About 38% of the cases, 561, were in pre-K through 5th grade.

The number of incidents in grades 9 through 12, including dual middle/high schools, came out to 390, or about 26.3% of the total. Only five fewer cases happened in grades 6 through 8, including dual elementary/middle schools, totaling 286 cases or about 26.0% of the total.

The state only identified the remaining 9.8%, 145 cases, as “other.”

By district

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the second largest school system in the state, reported the most assaults on school personnel during the 2022-2023 school year with 312 incidents.

Cumberland County Schools, while only the fifth most populace district, reported the second most assaults at 188.

The state’s largest district, Wake County Schools, reported 88 cases.

The third and fourth largest districts, Guilford County Schools and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, followed with 64 and 46 cases respectively in spots four and five.

Nationally

While the total number of assaults in North Carolina public schools is about on par as it was prior to the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reports that violence against teachers has increased nationally since the return to in-person learning in 2021. Data on the issue, however, is limited because many states do not specifically track teacher assaults or use the same methodology.

A nationwide survey of school employees conducted by the American Psychological Association survey found that 14% of teachers had reported physical violence from students between July 2020 and June 2021. The number was even higher for administrators (15%), school psychologists and social workers (18%) and staff (22%).

According to APA, violence against educators is a public health problem. The association says both educators and students need more mental health and well-being support. Schools could also benefit by bringing educators into decision-making processes and ensuring schools have enough resources, capacity and qualified staffing,

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