More than 600 cases of violence were reported in schools from September 2023 to March 2024 and nearly 70 per cent were from support staff, according to a worker-led report released by CUPE Nova Scotia.

The union represents more than 5,000 workers in public schools across the province.

They include teaching assistants, custodians, bus drivers, early childhood educators, librarians and many more.

Now, only a few weeks into the new school year, the union is already demanding action from the province on issues they say are affecting not only support staff but students and their families.

In particular, violence.

President of CUPE, Nan McFadgen, tells our newsroom they hear complaints daily from workers who are understaffed, overworked and frustrated, all contributing to the problem.

“Any kind of violence that you can imagine is happening in schools and it’s just, we think [it’s] all completely due to the fact that the frontline staff who work in partnership with educators are not really part of the discussion.”

McFadgen says they as well as NSGEU and SIEU had a one-hour meeting with the province recently to provide input on issues including violence in schools.

She says, nothing came out of it.

“I’m sad to say the meeting was likely, ‘let’s give them an hour and we can check the box, so they won’t be able to say we didn’t meet with them because we’re getting tired of hearing that'”.

Nova Scotia “committed” to safe schools

Meanwhile, the province says they are “committed to preventing and addressing” school violence to make sure students and staff are safe.

In a statement to our newsroom, the Department of Education says the input they received from the unions is “critical” and they appreciate their input.

“We discussed work to update the Provincial School Code of Conduct Policy and other initiatives to work on safe and secure schools.”

They say this includes tracking unacceptable behavior with a new strategy, the cell phone ban, a new “safe schools resource” for principals to use in meetings and updated emergency management procedures and training.

The province says there will be more opportunities to work with partners on this issue in the fall.

At the table again

Bargaining is ongoing with CUPE and the province in all eight centres of education, with a strike vote to take place between October 1 to 9.

This comes just over a year after Halifax Local walked off the job in May 2023, securing a new contract that June that expired March 31.

McFadgen tells us members want a meaningful wage to be able to recruit and retain workers and not always playing catch up with the cost of living.

“When you’re going to work your experiencing violence and you’re not making enough to get by. You’ve got a second job. It just makes our members question why they’re doing the work they do. And obviously, they circle back to… well…they love the work they do.”

McFadgen says that’s what keeps them there, but it gets “harder and harder”.

“You can’t eat love.  You can’t buy bread with that.”