Massachusetts public school staffer describes ‘extreme violent behaviors’ after superintendent downplays classroom incidents

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.” 

However, Patenaude called out Cabral’s assertion by including the story of a 5-year-old kindergartener with “extreme violent behaviors” who “often threw things, hit, kicked and screamed.” 

“I have been smacked, punched and stomped on, swung at with a broomstick, closed inside a doorway, and hit over the head with hard objects. I have been spat at, grabbed, pushed and had chairs and scissors thrown at me,” she said. 

‘Physically harmed at our schools every single day’ 

Recess also can present oversight challenges for staff, according to Patenaude. 

“There were 10 students known to consistently physically harm their teachers and peers, four students who could easily wander out of the recess area, and two students with medical needs and developmental delays,” she noted. 

“The three ed assistants were tasked with somehow keeping an extremely close eye on not only 10 violent students, but also closely monitoring the monkey bars due to a broken arm that year.” 

The district needs to increase the number of staffers present to meet such responsibilities, Patenaude argued. 

“To be clear, it is physically impossible for three sets of eyes to solely watch any more than three individual students. If there are 10 violent students who are supposed to be watched at all times, in hopes of preventing harm to others, there has to be at least 10 sets of eyes in order to do this.” 

Finally, Patenaude said, staffers should get higher compensation and recognition for the trouble they face in managing modern classrooms. 

“Staff members and students alike are physically harmed at our schools every single day. Something has to change,” she said of the district, which enrolls more than 8,000 students across 13 schools. 

Other teachers nationwide are reporting similar experiences since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“If there’s no consistency and there’s no reinforcement, then your classroom becomes chaos,” said Jennifer McGrath, president of the Modesto Teachers Association. 

The association urged its school district to change behavior policies while showing pictures of destroyed classrooms and describing teacher experiences of being kicked, bitten and cursed by their students. 

“Some things have to change,” McGrath said, “so that we can start educating again.”