Suspensions and expulsions on the rise at Hamilton public schools, data shows

Suspensions and expulsions for bullying, hate, serious assaults, sexual assaults and weapons are on the rise at Hamilton's public schools according, to a recently released report.

The Safe Schools Monitoring data for last school year (2021/22) was shared with Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board's program committee last week.

It states there were 3,902 students suspended and 46 expelled in the year.

The data includes four previous school years and it's hard to make comparisons because COVID-19 restrictions would've impacted the 2019/20 school year and the 2020/21 school year.

The number of suspensions is up compared to the previous two school years. Meanwhile, the number of expulsions is the second highest, only behind the 2019/20 school year — the same year a 14-year-old stabbed and killed Devan Selvey.

HWDSB staff told the committee the rise in suspensions and expulsions is the product of better trained staff and numbers in future reports are expected to keep increasing, according to Todd White, trustee for Wards 5 and 10.

"You can't fully put it on the fact we have an increased awareness, it's two-fold," White told CBC Hamilton. "We're seeing more occurrences and we're more aware of those occurrences."

The data shows there were 148 suspensions because of bullying, second only to the 2019/20 school year with 176 suspensions, but fewer than 10 expulsions, in line with past years.

It also states there were 52 suspensions for physical assault requiring medical attention and 19 expulsions, both of which are higher compared to past years.

The suspensions for those assaults is roughly the same amount as the past four school years combined.

There were 81 suspensions for possession of a weapon and 29 suspensions for using a weapon to threaten or cause bodily harm, which is higher than past years.

There were 29 sexual assault suspensions and 207 suspensions for hate, also higher than past years.

Serious incident reporting was also included in the data and seem to indicate the year may see a record level of reports.

There were 3,182 reports between Sept. 1, 2022 and Jan. 31, 2023 — half of this school year.

Comparatively, there were 3,758 incidents from Sept. 1 2021 to Aug. 31, 2022.

There were 1,308 the year prior and 4,162 the year before that.

The data states the numbers don't reflect the total number of incidents but rather, the total number of reports, because one incident can spur several reports.

Trustee wants more detailed data

HWDSB listed the various initiatives underway to help students feel safe in school.

Some of those include more research, more youth support programs, hold a student survey on mental health and stress,  approve human rights and anti-Black racism policies, introduce safe school mentors and launch a pilot program called Voices Against Bullying. The pilot is aimed at providing support to families when a child is bullied.

White said he wants more demographic data.

For example, he said he'd like an updated report with data that breaks down incidents, suspensions and expulsions by gender and race.

Trustees are set to meet Monday to discuss the report and other business.