Violence in the classroom

Number of suspensions at schools rising sharply

In Austria's schools, children and young people are increasingly being excluded from lessons because they repeatedly display violence - and the trend is rising sharply.

(Bild: Imre Antal)

If children and young people repeatedly display violence at school, they can be excluded from lessons for up to four weeks. And this is happening more and more frequently in Austria, as the answer to a parliamentary question from the FPÖ by Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) shows.

The number of suspensions in the 2022/23 school year has almost doubled compared to 2018/19. Teachers are calling for support through timeout classes and offers of help for pupils. After a significant decline in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school years, when face-to-face teaching was restricted by the coronavirus protection measures, suspensions have since increased significantly again.

After just under 1000 cases in the 2018/19 school year before the outbreak of the pandemic, there were already more than 1300 in 2021/22 and more than 1900 in 2022/23. The measure can also affect a pupil more than once; in Vienna, there were recently around 814 suspensions for 664 (mostly male) children and young people.

Suspension is intended to protect the environment
Suspension is an immediate measure to avert danger from classmates or teachers, as the top teacher representative Paul Kimberger emphasizes. "In most cases, however, something has already happened beforehand." Of course, suspension is by no means a suitable measure to counteract violent phenomena. It is only intended to protect the environment.

Compulsory school teacher trade unionist Paul Kimberger

(Bild: APA/Herbert Pfarrhofer)

"Thereare always fates behind it"
 Professional support staff (psychologists, social workers) are needed for the pupils themselves who stand out, to support them in and out of school. "There are always fates behind them." In this context, Kimberger also continues to rely on timeout classes. Pupils who are no longer able to cope in a normal classroom should receive appropriate support in a separate area.

In Austria's schools, children and young people are increasingly being excluded from lessons because they repeatedly display violence - and the trend is rising sharply.

(Bild: Imre Antal)

The Ministry of Education has provided more funding for support staff, "but that doesn't seem to be enough", says the teachers' representative. Schools are sometimes confronted with increasingly extreme forms of violence, he says, referring to a recent case in Vienna where a girl seriously injured a fellow pupil with a Stanley knife in the toilet. Although violence at school is still a minority phenomenon, it is a growing one.

"There used to be fights at school, but now there are no longer any boundaries," says Kimberger. Due to the intensive use of social media, some people can obviously no longer distinguish between fiction and reality.

Increase a result of heightened sensitivity
Experts such as Jürgen Bell, Head of School Psychology at the Vienna Department of Education, emphasize that the increase in suspensions is not the same as an increase in violence at schools. Sensitivity to the issue has increased and schools are punishing violence more quickly. In addition, the effects of the crises of recent years and the present are also being felt in schools.

For teacher representative Kimberger, it is clear that schools cannot solve the issue of violence on their own. The problems are being played down in public and in politics, he criticizes. "It's time to treat not just the symptoms, but the causes."

Vienna wants to make parents more responsible
"Schools can't do everything themselves," emphasizes school psychologist Bell. That's why Vienna wants to make parents more responsible for dealing with problems of violence. If they refuse the advice offered by school psychologists or social workers after their children have been suspended, for example, a risk report is sent to the child and youth welfare services. "Parents are also needed in the school partnership."

According to the violence protection package agreed at the end of 2023, there should also be "timeout" options at the schools themselves, as called for by teachers, in which conspicuous pupils receive intensive support in their own support classes.