According to the American Psychological Association, 44 percent of teachers report being physically attacked by a student.
And this was before the pandemic and return to in-person learning.
Pull aside any honest administrator and they’ll tell you that violence and aggression are up since the start of the school year.
The key to tamping it down is how we recommend managing behavior here at SCM.
Our approach to classroom management lowers tension, builds trusting rapport, and empowers students to take responsibility. The result is a calm and happy classroom that allows teachers and students to feel safe.
It’s also smart, however, to try never to put yourself in harm’s way by . . .
Knowing where every student is from moment to moment.
Maintaining wall-to-wall awareness.
Keeping your cool and never creating friction with students.
Surveying your environment every few seconds.
Keeping your back nearest to one wall as often as possible.
Being cautious (and reluctant) about kneeling down to help students.
Maintaining distance from students as your default position.
Never getting in the face of a student to scold, lecture, question, etc.
But what if the unthinkable happens? What if you let your guard down for just a moment and find yourself in a struggle for your life?
If attacked by a student, there are two places you must be to stay safe. Only two. The first is beyond striking distance. Meaning, out of range of your attacker.
Move, run, scramble, and get away as fast as you can to the safety of another classroom or adjacent office.
This is the best option. If they can’t touch you, they can’t hurt you. If you can’t get out of your room right away, then get a piece of furniture between you and them to maintain distance.
Deescalate by talking in a calming voice while moving toward the door and asking students to go and get help. If they’re not keen on helping, then you yell. As loud as you can.
The second safest place may sound strange, but it can save your life.
It’s definitely counterintuitive. But if a student is on you before you have time to escape, it’s your only good option. Before we get there, however, it’s important to mention where you should never be:
Within the one to six foot zone that is the attacker’s striking distance. It is here that you will suffer the greatest amount of injury and physical damage. It is here that is extremely dangerous.
It’s also the place most people without realistic self-defense training stay in to try to ward off an attack.
So what happens if a student closes on you and into your danger zone while throwing violent punches and/or kicks? So fast that you can’t get away?
You close on them.
That’s right. I know it may sound crazy, but if you can get inside (and thus beyond) the danger zone and bear hug the student—which is easier than it seems—then you can stay relatively safe. Any damage you suffer will be minimized.
Of course, if the student is a lot smaller and weaker and you’re able to use your hands to keep them away, then do so. But if they’re larger, perhaps a lot larger, a bear hug done in a certain way can keep you protected.
Practically, what you would do the moment you realize you can’t get away is cover your forehead with your hands and, while peeking between your elbows pointed to the front, crash right into their chest.
That’s right, you’ll move forward instead of back.
As soon as you make contact, wrap your arms around them, grip one hand around your opposite wrist (in a monkey grip), place your ear tight to their chest, and hang on tight. If you fall to the ground and they wind up on top of you, which is likely, adjust your arms around their neck and upper body and wrap your legs around them also.
Just hand on and try to remain calm. Ask students to go get help. (Be sure to know exactly where to send them.) Breathe and hold on until help arrives or you can get away by abruptly pushing off of them and out the other side of the danger zone.
This technique, which virtually anyone can do, is proven to work—even if the student is bigger and stronger than you.
Yes, it’s a last option. Yes, you may get injured. But you’ll avoid taking hard shots to the head and body. You’ll avoid getting knocked out. You’ll avoid serious injury and be able to go home that night to your family.
You’ll also avoid injuring the student.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a third option, which is to do some punching and kicking of your own. You do have a right to defend yourself, but the stakes are enormously high and a good outcome is unlikely.
Either they will be injured or you will. It will also encourage other students to jump in. You’ll lose your job and need a good lawyer. To me, this isn’t an option unless my life is at stake and options one and two are off the table.
You may have lots of questions. I know this is a tough topic to consider, and so easy to sweep under the rug. But it’s important to get it out in the open. It could save your life and a lifetime of regret.
Please leave me any questions you have in the comment section below, and I’ll try to cover them in a Facebook video on Monday.
I’m also going to include as part of the video a demonstration of the bear hug and how to practice it on your own. Please check it out. In the meantime, here is a video of the technique (beginning at the 50:00 mark) taught by experts.
I’ll be taking next week off for Thanksgiving but will be back with a new article on December 4th.
Have a safe and wonderful holiday!
-Michael
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I have had a student attempt to trip me from behind, but I caught on, stopped suddenly with my elbow held sharply back. I told her if I fell down around her, I would have her arrested. She never did again.
But another issue is what about kids attacking each other. I had a girl tell me she was going to fight someone, and I would not be able to do anything about it. I brought a 5 gallon bucket of water, filled it with water, and left it. Soon paper was in it, pencil shavings, and eventually a banana skin. I never said anything, but finally one day, a student asked me about it. “That is what I am going to dump on anyone in a fight.” They were horrified, said I could not legally do it. I said, “It is just water, and you will still be wet.”
I have a dear friend working in a school where kids stormed a room and had a fight or attacked the teacher. I told her to get the water buckets ready, and later she told me, she never had to use it, it was like they knew she had a plan, even though she did not mention it.
Violence is a real problem that know one is talking about. And if you ask me, I think this is a real reason people do not want to work in public school.
Thank you for these helpful tips. I sub a lot in the same building and it’s elementary so hopefully I will never need to use these tips, but as someone who often kneels to help students, I’ll be more mindful of the message it might send in the future.
Sometimes, I feel like you are writing to just me. Thank you.
I have not been in this situation but it has crossed my mind a few times in my teaching life.
My question is the afterwards. Do you report the assault to the police? I work in a middle/high school. I waiver back and forth on this and would value your thoughts.
Hi Katherine,
I know you’re asking Michael, but I wanted to reply because I’ve considered this too.
I work in a high school, in a suburb. No gangs (yet, though there’s a few trying to start one) and usually very little violence. But I used to work in a pretty rough school in Arizona where fights were almost a daily occurrence and my colleagues and I had objects thrown near us (thankfully, never toward us).
Both there and in my current work site, I have told students when they’ve asked, that if I am attacked but unharmed, I will demand they be removed from my class. If I am harmed, I will demand they be removed from my class and I will pursue legal action against the student and their parents to the greatest extent possible. If the school/district refuses to move the student, I will take a leave of absence, effective immediately, and pursue legal action against the district for putting me in a dangerous situation without my consent for which they should either remedy the situation, or pay me severance to last until I find a new job in another district. Obviously, if I were to work in a behavior program within the school, factors may be different that would influence these decisions.
I know the hesitation of pursuing legal action against children, especially middle schoolers who have far less control than high schoolers, but as minors their parents are legally liable for any action of theirs. It’s not so much that I would be pursuing legal action against a child and more that I would be sending a message to the child, the parents, and the community that violence has consequences and should not be tolerated, regardless if it is a minor or adult committing the act.
This is my belief, though there may be things I’m not considering, and of course this is what I have determined to be right for me. What you find to be right for you may be different.
Best of luck,
Jenn
Training days should contain info like this, even if it is „scary”. It is better to know some dos and donts. I would like that. Thank you for sharing. Very useful.
If this high incidence is true why are teachers told to take cell phones? If the students have already been told not to have them out and then have them out and refuse to put them away when reminded, what is the point in confiscating the cell phone? That just gives the already proven defiant student the opportunity to exercise that defiance at an escalated level. At the point the student refuses to put the phone away it is no longer time for teacher action. It is time for administrative action.
I have been using all of the the principles here since the beginning of my teaching career. It has allowed any principal to come into my class any time with many of the guests they bring onto campus. I consistently have excellent student outcomes.
Unfortunately, this also puts you in danger when you’re a monitor or even walking through the halls. Other kids target you, and other teachers walk away and expect you to deal with it rather than keep other students safe.
Bear hugs are not always safe.
Every technique was followed and mentioned in the article. As soon as I gave the student a bear hug to keep from further damaging me, the student started to bite and head butt me.
Do everything in your power to keep away from them.
This is just one of the events that has occurred to me. I now teach online and will never be a B&M teacher.
Stay safe.
Hi Jessie,
The technique is a particular kind of bear hug that keeps you from being head-butted and bitten—hence the reference to pressing your ear to the chest. Please check out the linked video. Also, of course it isn’t always safe. The technique is a last resort, when you can’t get away from a student intent on harming you.
If you bearhug a student attacking you, you must ensure that they can’t bait your ear or neck.
You also have to ensure that they can’t slam their heel onto your foot.
I worked with a teacher who tried to restrain a student who was flipping over tables in his classroom and he was fired later for touching the student. The student had an IEP for behavior. Check with your district before attempting to restrain a student to see if they will support this, or find out which restraint techniques are approved for your situation.
Hi CN,
The article doesn’t refer to restraining students. This is a different topic entirely.
Thank you Michael for the great article, I’m a big fan. As a kindergarten c0-teacher, I will from this moment forward, know where my students are in the classroom at all times. As you can imagine young students are not use to school’s rules and routines; and learning to stay seated takes alot of effort at this age. Yet no one is exempt from violence in the classroom. Just a few weeks ago, I was assisting a student with their shoes when another student asked me to stop and tie his shoes. When I asked the student to wait, the student kicked me. Then the student had a parent call the authorities on me stating I hit them. Although I am innocent, my union has to get me a lawyer, but at least now you provided some guidelines to me. Thanks
It is so sad that we are forced to face this in our jobs. I believe cameras should be installed in classrooms and teachers should be able to leave their classroom and activate an alarm on the outside to allow security to monitor the classroom until someone comes. We are paid too little to have to defend ourselves and risk injury by students. I am filing charges if I am ever injured by a student. That may be the only way that student receives the help they need anyway because our system overlooks too much at the students expense. I will never touch a student.
Thank you for the helpful tips.