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MGEU President Kyle Ross (Ruth Bonneville\/Winnipeg Free Press files)<\/p>\n
The data shows a surge in \u201cstudent-related aggression\u201d involving both children with additional needs and other students between 2022-23 and 2025-26.<\/p>\n
During the 2022-23 school year, there were 884 reports of a non-teaching employee in the WSD being bitten, kicked or subjected to related behaviour. There were 1,925 incidents last year.<\/p>\n
MGEU represents more than 1,900 division support staff, including educational assistants, administrative clerks, secretaries and library technicians in public schools across inner-city and central Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
Ross told the Free Press the union obtained the figures through a freedom of information request in response to anecdotal concerns that came from the workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really eye-opening for me to see this (data) and see it continue to grow over the last couple of years. It\u2019s not a good situation for the students, the teachers, the support staff,\u201d he said Friday.<\/p>\n
The overwhelming majority of aggression incidents \u2014 99 per cent of them, year over year \u2014 are reported by EAs.<\/p>\n
Hitting was the most common type of aggression in both 2024-25 and 2025-26.<\/p>\n
A student hit a staff member at least 855 times between September 2025 and June, an increase of 224 from the previous school year.<\/p>\n
MGEU is calling for more training in de-escalation tactics and for new hires so that WSD staff can spend quality time developing relationships with individual children they are assigned to support.<\/p>\n
The union has also identified concerns that its members are being hired into lower-level EA positions and asked to complete tasks beyond their pay grade once they\u2019re on the front lines.<\/p>\n
While noting the union is appreciative of the division\u2019s efforts to bolster training to help staff better support students who are neurodivergent, Ross said more needs to be done because the incident tally is \u201cfar too high.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t He said violence affects staff morale and work-life balance and makes recruitment and retention more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not fair to the workers to say, \u2018That\u2019s part of the job,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cNo one should accept being injured on the job \u2014 it\u2019s not OK.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t The Manitoba Teachers\u2019 Society has been raising concerns in recent years about an increase in violent outbursts in all corners of the province.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a significant and concerning problem not only in public education, but also in health care and in other circumstances where social services are being delivered and we take it very seriously,\u201d said Alan Campbell, executive director of the Manitoba School Boards Association.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the end of the day, the question around safe learning spaces and safe work spaces for staff comes down to the same conversation around adequate provincial government support.\u201d<\/p>\n Campbell called funding for students with intellectual and physical disabilities, as well as public dollars available for mental-health resources, \u201c20 years behind what it should be\u201d in Manitoba.<\/p>\n maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Maggie Macintosh Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie<\/a>.<\/p>\n Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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Education reporter
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