DENVER (KDVR) — Back to school season is here, but according to recently released survey results from the Colorado Educator Safety Task Force, some educators may not have the most positive feelings about returning to the classroom.
The task force, part of the Office of School Safety in Colorado's Department of Public Safety, in July released the findings from its legislatively mandated survey of more than 1,000 educators across the state. Survey respondents included not just teachers, but paraprofessionals, administrative leaders, office staff, counselors, nurses and more.
List: 2025-2026 start dates for Colorado’s biggest school districtsThe results showed that more than half of respondents suffered violence against them by students, and even more reported that students had attempted to injure them or another educator in their presence.
Office of School Safety Director Christine Harms in a FOX31 interview called the results "upsetting" and said the mental health impacts on Colorado educators could already be impacting the state's already educator-short system. Harms said more work needs to be done to address educators' safety in Colorado.
Educators feel 'defeated, traumatized, or even blamed'
Of the survey respondents, just over half reported they had been physically injured by a student, and nearly three-quarters reported that a student had attempted to cause physical injury to them or another adult in their presence.
"Some people said that they were injured daily," Harms said. "Some said that they received support from their administrators when these things happened. And others said that they were blamed for the injury."
Teachers said they feel this kind of violence is "normalized and often goes unaddressed," according to the task force.
"One particularly compelling and heartbreaking theme is the emotional toll this normalization of violence takes—teachers described feeling defeated, traumatized, or even blamed for their own injuries," the task force said in its report.
Director Harms: 'We have lost educators because of this'
Harms described some of the specific stories of violence that educators responded with in the survey, from some being hit and punched to some even suffering broken bones or concussions.
We're talking about educators who have suffered a trauma in their classroom, which would make it in many cases difficult to come back to the classroom and teach. In some cases, we have lost educators because of this, either because of their physical injuries they have suffered and/or their psychological injuries from having suffered these traumas that they are deciding not to be educators anymore. We already have a shortage of educators in Colorado, so we cannot afford to lose anymore.
Christine HarmsHarms said a number of teachers reported being given little to no time to recover when incidents happen, and many reported there were no consequences for the student who had misbehaved.
Roadmap for change
After the findings of the survey, Harms said the task force created a roadmap for what schools can do to better serve their educators and protect them from violence or the effects of nonaction.
Cellphone use banned for students in 1 northern Colorado school district"Some schools were already doing some things that were supportive of their teachers who were injured, but certainly not everybody, and that's something that the other schools can learn from," Harms said. "So, we want people to take educator safety as a priority. We don't want to normalize this behavior."
The task force identified four topics in the roadmap to combat violence against teachers:
Pre-Incident: Incident Reduction & Preparation Incident Response: Managing Incidents Post Incident: Recovery & Return System & PartnersThe fourth topic includes things such as public awareness of the problem, training and building better school culture, and each topic has a list of recommendations for schools to address, which can be found on the office's website.
The task force's legislative mandate only required work from September 2024 to June 2025 and the one survey, so the required work is done, but Harms hopes more data is compiled to illustrate the full scope of the issue.
"I think we really need more data gathered on how often these things are happening so that people understand that this is a problem," Harms said. "This is not something that's just happening in Colorado; this is happening across the country and something that we all need to be aware of and find ways to stop."
Hence then, the article about we have lost educators because of this survey reveals trend of violence against colorado educators by students was published today ( ) and is available on KDVR ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( 'We have lost educators because of this': Survey reveals trend of violence against Colorado educators by students )
Also on site :