School violence ‘epidemic’
The Canadian Press – Sep 16, 2026 / 11:21 am | Story: 631464
Photo: The Canadian Press
The B.C. legislature building is pictured in Victoria, on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
The teachers’ union in Greater Victoria is urging immediate action after a report outlines what it says is a “growing and widespread epidemic” of violence in local schools.
The Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association says the report released Wednesday draws from a survey and a focus group across elementary, middle and secondary schools, as well as from more than 6,000 violent-incident reports from the Greater Victoria School District.
It shows that there has been an average of 21 cases of reported student-on-staff violence each day, with 95 per cent of the teachers saying they have experienced classroom violence within the last year.
The majority of teachers surveyed also say school violence has increased during their career, with 52 per cent calling current prevention programs ineffective and almost half saying they’ve experienced violence in the workplace at least once a week.
The report is recommending a number of changes for both the school district and from the province, including providing “adequate alternative spaces” for students and developing a comprehensive plan for responding to violent incidents.
The Greater Victoria School District had previously been in the news after nine trustees were fired, then reinstated over the debate of whether to have police liaison at local schools.
The trustees had argued the police liaisons made some students feel unsafe when it ended the program in 2023, but it was reinstated by the school district in 2025 after the trustees were removed.
