Investigating Physical Violence Against Classroom and Other School Personnel Using Ohio Workers' Compensation Data:...

This study uses workers' compensation data to explore the extent, severity, and context of violence-related injuries sustained by classroom (teachers and aides) and other personnel (e.g., administrators, education support specialists, security, custodial and maintenance workers, food workers) in Ohio's K-12 urban public schools. The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation provided access to claims filed by workers from the state's nine urban school districts from January 01, 2001 to December 31, 2012 (N = 19,508). Injury trends were explored with descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses. Approximately 25% of all claims filed were violence-related. Overall, violence-related injury rates remained relatively stable from the 2001-2002 to the 2011-2012 academic year. However, the odds of victimization for classroom personnel were 1.84 times the odds of victimization for other personnel. For both classroom and other personnel, the most commonly-sustained injuries resulting from a violent event included contusions; sprains to the neck, back, and upper or lower extremities, and open wounds. Most violence-related injuries were sustained during direct contact with students displaying escalated or aggressive behavior, or during efforts to de-escalate third-party violence. Implications of using workers' compensation data to inform workplace violence research and practice are discussed.