Justin Matchett, president of the Nunavut Teachers’ Association, says more needs to be done to protect teachers from school violence and abuse. (Photo courtesy of the Nunavut Teachers’ Association)
‘Teachers are leaving’: union head decries violence in Nunavut schools
Justin Matchett says teachers need more training and to be better protected; GN says new measures are coming
A “violent incident” at Iqaluit’s high school that led to a short lockdown last month is one example of the unsafe work environment teachers regularly face, the president of the Nunavut Teachers Association says.
That sort of violence has become too normalized, Justin Matchett said in an interview after the March 7 incident at Inuksuk High School.
“We are seeing a large number of people leave the profession. This takes a large mental toll on people,” he said.
“The amount of violence we are seeing is certainly increasing. The frequency in which these incidents are happening is alarming.”
The lockdown lasted for about six minutes. A post on the school’s Facebook page confirmed the student was not injured in the “violent incident.”
The teacher suffered minor injuries, Matchett said.
Since October 2022, the Education Department has compiled data on violence in Nunavut schools. A summary found that from October 2022 to June 2023, 70 incidents of student-on-teacher abuse or assault were reported.
Sixty-seven more reports were recorded between July 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, bringing the total to 137 in the past year and a half.
Matchett said he believes the actual number is higher.
“Take an elementary school teacher, for example. They get kicked or pushed by their students, generally they aren’t going to be hurt, but that still isn’t the type of incident they should be dealing with,” he said.
Violence in schools has become so normalized, teachers may not feel the need to report such a frequent occurrence, he said.
Matchett noted, however, that administrative staff are supportive and when there is a major incident, it is treated seriously.
On the GN’s end, “there is a quick reaction” as well, he added.
Matchett wants more study into the causes of these incidents, why they happen, and how to deal with them. He said shifting attitudes toward the teaching profession could be one cause.
“People talk about our profession with a mountain of misinformation and preach it as facts,” he said.
“This increasingly negative viewpoint of who we are as teachers and the lack of respect we are given, has filtered down to a complete lack of respect [from a number] of students who feel as though teachers hold no authority.”
Matchett said students are never wrong and teachers are consistently told it’s their fault if a student misbehaves.
He said he has seen parents yell at teachers or administrators more times than he can count.
“In my opinion, unless there is a cultural shift of ideology about what is really happening in our schools, this isn’t going to change.”
Matchett feels a collaborative effort between government, schools, teachers and parents is the only way to fix it.
“Parents need to be more on-board with schools and try to work with them, instead of against them,” he said, adding teachers are often leery of calling parents because they expect they’ll be verbally abused if they do.
Matchett also called for better followup after a violent incident.
In some cases, he said, “they aren’t going to be OK and they are going to leave the profession.”
Currently, there are 810.5 filled teaching positions in the territory, and 82 are vacant, Matthew Illaszewicz, director of stakeholder engagement for the Department of Education, said in an email to Nunatsiaq News on Friday.
After a violent incident occurs, the department follows procedures to ensure the mental health of teachers returning to work.
Along with providing a list of mental health resources in Nunavut, Illaszewicz said meetings are held with teaching and operational staff to provide support, there’s continual referral to mental health nurses and other practitioners as needed, and leave is provided to assist the teacher’s recovery.
“This isn’t a Nunavut-specific problem,” Matchett said. “It’s a general attitude — a thing that’s taking place across Canada and across North America.”
In 2023, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario released findings of a survey in which 77 per cent of members reported having “personally experienced violence or witnessed violence against another staff member.”
Also in 2023, a survey by the Nova Scotia Teachers Union found 92 per cent of respondents said they had witnessed violence firsthand at school.
In October, Nunavut Education Minister Pamela Gross said data collected by the GN would be used to enact preventive and corrective measures.
Matchett said while he believes it’s too early to take action based on the data, “it is shining a light on what’s happening and that’s important.”
In the interim, he said, some progress has been made.
“From great discussions with the government, we were able to come to an agreement on finally getting some teachers some type of training,” he said.
For instance, this year, teachers were trained in verbal de-escalation to deal with incidents that could turn violent.
But, Matchett added, teachers hadn’t had any type of training for years “which is completely unacceptable.”
“And now we’re just looking at next steps. What are we going to do next? How are we going to expand on this and make sure our teachers feel like they can work in a safe environment?”
Lack of respect for teachers started by removing the “Mister and Missus” from the classrooms in Nunavut then it all went downhill from there.
To be fair the lack of respect started when kids were taken from families and forced into to boarding schools. And to you Mister and Missus argument… it was teachers that used those that caused a lot of problems back then. So that is why we dont use Mister and Missus in the schools now.
But you are correct we need to increase the respect given to teachers… both local and southerners. and if a teacher is not deserving that respect from the whole community then they need to be relived of he job… both local and southern.
You can always tell the folks who ‘like their own posts’ a little more than they should. Akin to having a whiff of your own brand i guess. No one’s buying it.
Soon thel need need metal detectors and security guards in schools here. Kids learn this bad behavior from their parents, but the schools can’t control what happens outside of the classrooms. Seems like Zero respect for teachers nowadays.
This is a problem that has started a long time ago, parents don’t bring up their children the right way and even when their kids do something wrong they don’t punish their kids and reinforce their bad actions, the other problem is the schools today are so reactive instead of proactive and the rules are way too lenient, as a kid in the 80s and 90s we had a lot more rules and the the schools were a lot more strict, unlike todays schools.
It’s a bad combination from both sides, yes the parents and students have a lot to do with this but it also falls on the education system where kids have very little strong rules and consequences to follow.
We could not wear caps in class, we had to put our hands up to ask a question, we needed permission to use to washrooms and it was for a certain amount of time, homework had to be done if it wasn’t done we needed a parents signature the next day.
Today kids don’t really have any structure in our schools, cell phones in class are used and so on.
It’s a recipe for disaster.
I agree that something needs to change in terms of format. Maybe online classes taught by great teachers with tutorial zoom events for those that want to understand further. It standardizes the lessons and ensures that they are top quality. Remote locations get the same opportunity as more populous centres. The basics are there for everyone and if you work hard and show merit, then you earn the right to in person classroom teaching (if you want that). Kids can learn at their own pace and on their own schedule. I know… lots of other issues with this suggestion as that means parents can’t use the school system as baby sitters, we would need reliable internet for everyone, parents would have to get involved in encouraging their kids to learn, etc…. But… Sesame street taught a lot of us our numbers and letters… the format can be quite a bit more dynamic if we adapt and make learning through video games, online story telling and interactive math, etc… Teachers would still be needed but the format of teaching changes.
My wife leaving the profession was one of the best things to happen to our family.
The improvement in her quality of life was immediate. Not having to deal with parents anymore is the biggest thing for her. She has had panic attacks leading up to parent-teacher meetings because of the treatment she would receive. So many grown-a** adults in our community should be VERY ashamed of themselves.
And she even makes more money now. She still works lots of overtime … but none of it is free anymore.
I don’t know why anyone would want to be a teacher and I actively advise my friends and family against it.
If Inuit way of discipline was still around, kids would have been better today, now that they don’t get any spanking on the bottom, we just let them be how they are today.
If I said to my kids that I’ll slap their bottom sometimes in public if they act up, infront of a qabloonaaq. They’ll just think I’m crazy. They’ll call up security or cps than I’ll explain myself to them of what’s going on. The security will say that’s it? That’s what we’re called in for. And when my kids cry out loud for not wanting to go in when it’s time and we drag them in or carry them on our shoulder, they’ll call up cops and think we’re abductors. Qabloonaaqs are jumpy and paranoid people. One of the few reasons I will not make a friend out of. The biggest reason I don’t wanna make a friend out of a qabloonaaq is they seem pretty racist.
We have a winner for today’s racist stereotyping award!
It’s this free education system; at least 20% of the education cost to the government should be footed by the parents. We are few handful of free education in this world and Nunavut should be aware of that. I mean who pays you to attend secondary education? Look at NAC students, paid to learn and about 35% leave without completing their chosen studies…Everything handed down to you have no values….I feel for the teachers of Nunavut and the world in general, many starting school are already crowned princes and princesses at home and they act like they are as in their homes at schools.
Only 35%? That surprises me. Are these stats available somewhere?
I was having a conversation just the other day with someone and we were wondering about the 2-year and 4-year completion rate of various programs at NAC.
Presumably these stats are collected, so anyone know where to go to find them?
NAC head office in Iqaluit
NAC HQ is in Arviat, not Iqaluit
Appreciate that Alex and Herman, but the head honcho, the President, is. I should have been more clear in my comment.
NAC Head Office is not Iqaluit.
Sure. Teach kids that when someone breaks a rule, they should assault them. That will reduce violence, except we know better now that hitting kids does the opposite. It does a lot of harm and any small good it does is temporary. A lot of cultures believe this. It is still wrong.
It was rubber strap for me from my teacher, human rights, how time fly. But I am comfortable in life now, few bucks here and there, relaxing now.
Does this violence occur as well against inuit teachers or only non-inuit? Kids are being taught by their peers and parents to disrespect qalluunat and this racism turns into violence in the classrooms. And when a teacher tries to discipline a kid it becomes “colonialism”. But let’s have hope for tje next 25 years I guess
This! I am so glad that someone highlighted the growing acceptance of xenophobic/racist attitudes.
The parents always think their kids are sweet little angels. When they do something bad and another parent tries to discipline or scold them they get on the defensive. Some kids always want their way. I agree with 867. The kids learn from their parents. The kids act just like the parents. These bad kids have proud parents. Some adults like to bully. Bullying is not cool at all. Being a badass is not cool.
But isn’t that the ‘Inuit way’ (if you can generalize such a thing) of discipline? Maybe you’re talking about time in the past?
To quote the Mandalorian, “This is the way.”
And this culture carries over the to the GN workforce.
Induced by charter of rights
Teachers should probably get self defense training too.
It happens even to bus drivers. It happens to nurses. It happens everywhere. In some places you gotta have certain something to “fit in” if we still lived in caribou skin clothing, if we were back in those days, individuals would be sent out on the land as timeout with no contact from other Inuit for a period of time. This was discipline
And hopefully the young university grads are reading these articles as a warning, because the fancy shiny posters they put up at the teacher job recruitment fairs down south are nothing but lies.
At residential school we were not allowed to fart without permission
It was such a relief when we were finally allowed to
Good point, I guess the current problem of violence against teachers is justified. Is that right?
Teachers are also leaving due to internal bullying from wanna be administration. Get learning coaches and SSTs back in the classroom.
I am pretty sure that the dislocated shoulder inflicted on one of the teachers involved in the incident noted qualifies as something other than a “minor” injury. High school students are getting bigger, stronger and many students in Nunavut (especially males) are more unstable, angry and lack the parental oversight and resilience to deal with the day-to-day issues of high school life. I fear that it is only a matter of time before a situation far worse than the most recent lock down takes place.
Yes Eskimos Fan! Your’ re right! Lets dredge up the residential school issue and blame THAT for the antisocial behavior of a 16 year old kid in 2024!
Yes it is related. It is called multi generational trauma. People who went to residential school did not learn parenting skills. They were unloved , punished and traumatized. This mostly unresolved trauma has been passed down to 2 generations now, down to the grand kids. There has been very little appropriate and adequate professional help over the years for the traumatized now grand parents who many have PTSD due to those experiences. The body never forgets even when you are unaware of repressed memories. Please educate yourselves on that topic . That is what reconciliation is all about.
Yes, some of us experienced the Ed Horne trauma indirectly but some of our students did up to the early ’80s (’84). The towns he lived in have bad trauma, and have been affected by the former students. Not just within their own families and homes but out into the community they are/were in. Not saying that residential schools and earlier education system hasn’t affected the grandchildren (and even great-grandchildren) now going to school is Trumpish. It isn’t fake man!!!!! Many of our former students from that one example are still feeling it and their families, and their victims. A good number have died by their own hands with Ed Horne’s shadow looming over them. AAaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!@
And who would be the arbiter as to whether or not a teacher “deserves” the respect of the community “Lets Get It Out There”? Is that you and your Facebook buddies who regularly pillory and slander teachers in semi-public forums over every perceived infraction and then bad mouth them to their kids? And everyone wonders why there is a discipline problem in schools!
Once again the Department of Education is all talk and no action. There is always something “being developed” or “coming soon” but the Minister and her department could not be any more obvious that they don’t actually care about teachers, students or what is happening in schools.
I was assaulted by my student in the fall of 2023. I received support from my administration, the NTA and the IDEA. I don’t know what sort procedures Illaszewicz is referring to in this article because no one from the Department reached out to me, let alone offered me any sort or mental health support or leave.
I’m interested, how did the justice system and police deal with it? Were you off of work long?
I did end up filing a police report but nothing came of it because the student was a minor, which I knew would happen going in- my hope going into it was that it would force Family Services to get the child some help. They were being failed by the system which resulted in severe mental/emotional stress which turned into explosive anger that unfortunately I and the rest of my students bore the brunt of.
Family Services of course could not have cared less about how their inaction was impacting the child and told me as much.
I ended up not needing a lot of time off work, but my admin was very supportive of me taking time off if I needed it.
Thank you for sharing this.
There are many shortcomings with the education system in Canada and Nunavut which mirror and parallel those in our society. Nunavut and Canada are anti-entrepreneurship, preferring an antisocial regimen of regulation, bureaucracy, collectivism and monopoly to innovation and effort
We promote unreasonable goals that ensure the worst teachers are rewarded equally to the best workers, the laziest students as the most conscientious. Collectivism, tribalism, identity trump the individual, the community, and social integrity. It is time for change.
The education system in Canada and Nunavut should take some notes from the Scandinavian countries where it is working very well, full of structure based on research.
Canada for decades seem to be pulling towards US style education and other areas in our society too much, not the best and we can do a much better job looking at countries where their society is doing much better, such as the Scandinavian countries.
When I was a pupil in the sixties the best teachers promoted learning – through practice and exercises that developed comprehension, endurance, effort, attention, curiosity, interest, memorization and self-discipline. That was their job; ours was to learn knowledge, how to learn, inspiration, cooperation and competition. My parents encouraged the same.
Sometimes there was discipline, seemingly harsh discipline. Our teachets were Nuns. Spare the rod,,,, was part of their mantra. Sometimes the parish priest came to class to support them. Sometimes the discipline at school and at home was excessive. We became engineers, teachers, accountants, business owners, doctors, carpenters, nurses and accountants. Big family.
There has been no real education for students in Nunavut ever since they did away with passing grades and instead inserted the social passing system where students are upped grade to grade based on age and not on student achievement. By grade 10 when the credit system kicks in, they have to pass the grade to move into Grade 11. They are so used to just being moved onto the next grade without doing the actual work, that when they start failing in high school frustration builds up and unfortunately we see them acting out to the degree that we are seeing and hearing about today from Nunavut schools . Do away with social passing, the arc would be greater, but at least students would have a semblance of education unlike today.
Today we are too busy worry and thinking about social media, that is our priority during the day and night, very different times today.
An educated society. Creates the underpinning of the success or failure of that society. Which path is Nunavut choosing. The future is not bright
I am a residential Skool warrior
Preach me a sermon
Wow, how about danger pay, and security for schools. The health centre got them, aren’t teachers just as valuable as nurses and doctors?
Yes, serious structure and high expectations have to start in the very first grades and pre-school. Also, there needs to be serious exercise, gym and sports for all students within the school timetable—like the exercise classes at a YM/YWCA in southern Canada. Surely you can see that kids being overweight is happening in parallel with misbehaviour? It may come as a surprise that schools can actually do the heavy lifting when parents fall down on their duty to their children and even in the most dysfunctional communities.
Do not move to Nunavut and especially do not work for the Government of Nunavut, in any department. Save your physical and mental health and find work elsewhere. Do yourself a serious favor.
NAC hides their graduation stats, I am sure for good reason as they are likely very sad numbers. High school graduation rates are posted though. Quite dismal, I am sure they are similar.
“There are 286 high school graduates in Nunavut this year, an improvement over 262 grads in 2022 but one shy of the record 287 graduates in 2021. The graduation rate came in at 38.4 per cent last year, below the 43.6 per cent recorded a year earlier.”
It’s telling how resistant the GN is to statistics. I suppose those are inconvenient reminders of how poorly their policies and programs translate into real world results.
Someone should ATIPP them for those stats. ATIPP NS too. In any other college those rates are readily available.
Don’t blame the kids. Toxic admin, colleague bullying and, harassment, blatant favoritism, admin turning blind eyes to cater to or protect their inner circle is mostly why teachers leave. When 30% of a staff leave a school, it’s the admin tolerating toxic culture which enables it that makes teachers leave, not the students. Teachers leave because they see the hopelessness in expecting change from the defenders of the status quo, school admin and regional school operations. The Department of Education does not police itself and the NTA is a paper tiger that kowtows to the GN by investigating nothing and leaves teachers to fend for themselves. Department of Human Resources needs to intervene and interview GN teachers directly. There needs to be a direct audit by a different department than Department of Education and institutional guarantees for whistleblowers’ protection for their job security and from reprisals. Clean up the toxic culture and many teachers will stay.
You just described every office in every department of the GN. It’s not how hard you work, it’s who’s your friend.
Spot on – Can Nunatsiaq please do an article on the real reasons teachers are leaving ? Justin is just another ladder climber and can’t speak the truth to the matter. Stop blaming the poor kids for problems adults created themselves.
What I believe is needed in each classroom is a camera. It’s unfortunate but I strongly feel having a security camera in every classroom is now required…for teacher, AND student safety. I have not seen physical abuse but I have heard (and experienced) verbal abuse from student to teacher and teacher to student.
Do I miss the profession? Yes I do. Will I ever go back? No I will not.
Sure someone will bring up a breach of confidentiality if security cameras are installed, but in all honesty, when a teacher tries to discipline a student, most times, a parent is posting on social media recruiting hate on and about the teacher breaching confidentiality anyway.
Health centres need security to prevent violence against nurses, serious school violence constantly, disrespect for southerners in general, social workers constantly burning out and quitting, let’s ignore it because this is Nunavut we can do what we want starting to sound familiar, and we wonder why Inuit don’t want to. E teachers, nurses, social workers.we have turned into a territory of whiners, complainers, and blamers. And entitled sad.
Teachers aren’t leaving cuz of the kids, they’re leaving cuz most Nunavut principals are petty tyrants who would be fired asap if they worked down south. Complaints about principals fall on deaf ears. It’s so embarrassing how principals continually favor the staff who line up to kiss ***. There’s nothing wrong with the students. Kids are kids. There’s student on teacher violence in schools all across Canada probably in the same ratio as here. Teachers leave because they’re tired of putting up with the bs. Btw, leave it to the NTA to blame poor teacher retention on students and not toxic workplace. Kissing a little GN *** themselves. Does a certain NTA pres want to work in the GN Dept of Ed bureaucracy methinks?
You made me tear up. I worked in a school where the principal did favor certain employees and favor them. Us, worked like dogs and were treated like dogs. Very true! It is not about the students, it is the wanna bes and they sure can play the weaker ones.
Celebrating 25 years of self government. What is to celebrate.
The pillars of society. Have never even begun to be put in place.
Poverty, corruption, lack of work ethic, poorly educated society. People in jobs. That have no knowledge or capability to perform the required duties. Of the work they are given.
I don’t want to be negative. There are many good Inuit that do try. But are those same people over whelmed by a failing society.
Is it to late to correct what was begun 25 years ago. With so much hope.
Hmmm, what are the rules on that? Can someone in Nunavut ATIPP (or whatever the Ontario equivalent is) NS records, or does it need to be an Ontario resident? Also, legally, is NS a governmental or private institution? Is it even ATIPPable?
I don’t know. Anyone out there have an idea?
Now he is talking! Why not closely monitor the teachers and all workers in the work places! Where were you when I was being harassed?! No wonder, abuse arises due to neglect and ignoring emails, complaints and phone calls! Wake up!