Teacher aides face rise in kicking, biting from students

Hundreds of Queensland school support staff lodge complaints about violence Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 6:30am In short: Hundreds of Queensland school staff have complained to their union about experiencing violent and aggressive behaviour in state schools. Their accounts detail being spat on, punched and kicked while at work. What's next? Queensland's Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the government is strengthening school safety measures. A Queensland union says it's received hundreds of complaints from state school staff, describing incidents in which they were punched, spat on and bitten at work. About four hundred staff — the majority teacher aides — have complained to the United Workers Union since April about violent behaviour from students and parents. The union's education coordinator Errin Roberts said state school staff are feeling unsupported and unsafe. "Teacher aides and school cleaners across Queensland in our state schools are experiencing record levels of occupational violence," she said. "Our members love supporting students, but they need the resources, the training and the support to do that safely," she said. Data tabled in state parliament late last year revealed violent and aggressive incidents reported by Queensland school-based staff have quadrupled in the past three years to 20,833 incidents last year. Queensland's Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said in a statement the government was pulling "every lever" to strengthen safety measures. "We have a zero-tolerance approach in our schools because all teachers and students deserve a safe workplace and learning environment," he said. Professor Theresa Dicke researches health and safety incidents in the education system at the Australian Catholic University. She said offensive behaviour and critical incidents perpetrated by students and parents had become more intense and more frequent across Australia over the past fifteen years. "There's differences in different jurisdictions but an increase, we see everywhere," she said. "It's become part of the job, so to speak." School safety in focus after stabbings Since last year, the Queensland government has put $57 million towards a program aimed at placing more behavioural support staff in classrooms and it's finalising an occupational violence plan aimed at providing staff with strategies. Extra police officers on campus were ruled out as a safety measure, following two separate stabbings at Queensland schools this week. "We've got more police, they've got tougher laws, they've got wanding powers," Police Minister Dan Purdie said at the time. "Schools are safe, overwhelmingly safe." Ms Roberts said the incidents, which happened at an independent school and a state school, were serious examples of broader school safety issues. "They are two very horrific incidents, and we acknowledge that, but it is the tip of the iceberg," she said. "What we are consistently calling for is occupational violence safety frameworks [that] attempt to reduce the number of overall incidents. "More resources in schools, better training, stronger mental health supports for students and a practical occupational violence framework, focused on prevention is necessary."