Arbitrator finds province failed to protect teaching staff working with violent student
Student’s experience at southern N.B. middle school exposes safety gaps in inclusive education
Inclusive education, or inclusion, has been part of New Brunswick's education system since 1986, but the story of a boy's middle school years detailed in a recent labour board decision shows the system is struggling.
The student's experience is the focus of a grievance filed by the New Brunswick Teachers' Federation. The union alleges the provincial government failed to provide a safe working environment for staff from 2019 to 2021.
The student's middle school years were largely spent in conflict with educators and in isolation from peers — on a partial-day plan that saw him attend half a day or less and sometimes in seclusion.
Inclusive education requires that students with disabilities or other special needs be educated in their local schools, in regular classes with students his own age.
In October, arbitrator Trisha Perry found in favour of the federation — a decision that prompted the province and the Anglophone South School District to apply for a judicial review with Saint John's Court of King's Bench.
Multiple education staff were physically harmed and threatened by the student, who has several complex conditions, including autism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Over four years, hold-and-secure orders were implemented twice as a result of his behaviour, meaning the doors to the school were locked and students were not permitted to leave.
Grade 6: Call for support unanswered, pandemic closes schools
When the student began middle school in 2019, the school was aware he had a personalized learning plan for autism spectrum disorder, but it did not know about his history of violent behaviour, a resource teacher testified.
The Grade 6 student was not deemed a "high need" pupil, but this quickly changed.
An educational assistant testified that three days into the school year, she was injured working with the student and required 11 months of physiotherapy.
"EA-1 testified she was hit, grabbed, slapped, kicked, swore at, chased, hit with objects, threatened, etc. by the student," Perry's decision says. "Many of the incidents also involved repeated touching and poking of her breasts."
The resource teacher asked for support from the district, and a behavioural specialist began to assist with the student.
By October, as staff continued to struggle, the school made a formal request for help. The district took no clear action at that time, the arbitrator said.
In January 2020, the school renewed its request and informed the district the student could not remain in the classroom.
That same month, the student received a formal diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and the school began consulting with the FASD Centre of Excellence. No changes could be implemented before the pandemic closed schools.
Grade 7: 'Grave concerns' for staff, seclusion, partial days begin
Before reopening in September 2020, the middle school modified a room to be used by the student, and the district added two EAs.
The school's plan for the student included seclusion, which the Education Department says "involves placing an individual alone in a room or area from which the individual is physically prevented from leaving."
Despite the improved support and student plan, the problems continued in the student's Grade 7 year.
"I have grave concerns about the safety of my staff," the school principal wrote to the district just weeks into the year, after another violent incident.
On Oct. 13, the student began a partial-day plan that saw him attend school from 8:30 to 11 a.m.
In April 2021, Ardith Shirley, executive director of the New Brunswick Teachers' Association, noted in an email to the district that incidents with the student "seemed to be worsening in terms of frequency and intensity," the decision says.
In March and April 2021, the school reported several violent incidents, including one requiring the school to go into hold and secure. A second EA testified that at that time, the student repeatedly threatened to get a gun or a bow and arrow to hurt her.
In May 2021, district staff spent six weeks at the school, showing staff better ways to work with the student. While there were fewer instances of aggression then, the resource teacher testified the improvement was short-lived.
In June, two EAs invoked their right to refuse unsafe work.
Grade 8: Student transfers to new school
The school and the district agreed a new plan to work with the student would be necessary ahead of his Grade 8 year, but the principal testified that a request to the district for a plan in August went unanswered.
During the first three days of school, several staff were physically harmed, according to testimony, and more employees filed right-to-refuse forms.
On the third day, staff called the RCMP, and the school went into a hold-and-secure. That was the student's last day at that school.
When he was transferred to a second middle school, there was a notable change in preparation and early district support, testimony shows.
This included on-site support from a district behavioural lead, a personalized learning space with modifications for safety, and a transition plan made in collaboration with school staff, district staff, the parents, the FASD Centre of Excellence, Social Development, Inclusion NB, and the province's child and youth advocate.
Staff got training from the district, an occupational therapist, and the FASD Centre.
The student's day was also limited to two hours in school, and three staff were dedicated to him.
By April 2022, he was able to go to other parts of the school. The second middle school ultimately filed fewer than 10 violent incident reports, compared with more than 100 filed by the first school.
Grade 9: Educators report 68 violent incidents
When the student began Grade 9 at a high school, the principal knew little about the student's history, he testified.
Still, the district's facilities department visited the school beforehand to make safety modifications to a room that would become the student's personalized learning space.
The student was able to attend high school for two hours a day, five days a week, until his behaviour escalated again in March 2023.
After a staff member was bitten in the shoulder, requiring a tetanus shot, the schedule was temporarily reduced to three days per week.
By May 2023, high school staff had filed 68 violent incident reports.
"Asked to describe a typical day, the principal says the student arrives with a support worker in the morning, is greeted by 3 EAs at the entrance wearing denim jackets, two of whom also wear tackle pads on their forearms," arbitrator Perry wrote.
"With the student positioned against the wall, two EAs walk beside them and the third EA clears traffic until they arrive at the student's primary personalized learning environment."
Violence 'normalized' when it comes to inclusion
Caroline Foisy, the federation's deputy executive director, testified this boy's case isn't an isolated one.
"According to her, violence is normalized in the context of inclusionary education," the decision says.
"While many of her members fear going to work, they are hesitant to invoke their right to refuse unsafe work because they work with children."
Perry decided the province should have made sure school staff were fully informed about the risk the student posed. This likely would have changed the school's preparation and approach, and the available resources, she wrote.
Perry added that there should have been earlier efforts to explore a complex case designation, which allows students to access specialized services.
The district team's intervention late in Grade 7 was much too late, Perry wrote.
She said the case shows how important it is for the province to keep workplace safety in mind, alongside its commitment to inclusive education — and it indicates the province is falling short.
"Though some inherent risk is associated with inclusive education, extreme, consistent, and frequent incidents of violence and harm should not be considered the 'norm' for educational providers," she wrote.
The province declined to comment on the case while the arbitrator's decision is being reviewed, saying only that the safety of teachers and staff is paramount.
The union also declined to comment, citing the judicial review.
A call for systemic change
Despite some improvements at the boy's second middle school, Perry noted the student's family is critical of his education experience — particularly the use of a partial-day plan, where the student was not in school for much of the day.
Partial-day plans were the subject of a scathing report by New Brunswick Child and Youth Advocate Kelly Lamrock, who questioned their legality.
Seclusion was also used repeatedly in this student's case, a practice Lamrock flagged in a separate report as operating outside the law.
Lamrock declined to be interviewed for this story but noted in an email that slow responses and under-resourced systems tend to be at the heart of cases like this one.
Jacqueline Specht, director of the Canadian Research Centre on Inclusive Education at Western University, said violence in classrooms is rising across the country.
"When we don't have kids in school all the time, and when they are there, they're isolated, that gives them the sense that they don't belong," she said.
"And when we either tell people, or show people through our actions that they don't belong, then that causes great mental health issues."
More support and training for educators are needed, she said.
"We have kids who don't know how to read, we teach them to read. And if they don't know how to write, we teach them to write.
"If they don't know how to behave, we just punish them. So it's just a mindset that has to change."
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