Iowa teachers tell the newsteam they are so overwhelmed by extreme violent behavior they have reached a breaking point.  Most people, I don’t think, realize kind of what’s happening.  We get screamed at and cursed at daily.  I’ve been stabbed with a pencil before.

Police reports back the teachers up.  They contain stories of children ages 10 and younger throwing chairs, punching teachers in the face, and leaving bruises on instructors.  One teacher considers herself lucky.  “In terms of what other teachers deal with, I think I’ve been kind of blessed because I’ve never had to go to the hospital.”

Teachers regularly have to stop instruction and escort well-behaved children to safety in the hallway while a student having an outburst destroys the classroom.  Teachers are instructed not to place their hands on students unless the child becomes a safety threat to themselves or others.

While the current state is unfortunate, the State was told this would happen when it was enacting it’s restraint regulations back in 2016.  The Governor, State Attorney General, all the schools and the State Legislature were informed:

“Iowa’s restraint and physical intervention regulations are unlawful under Iowa Case Law, Statute, and Constitution, including:

• • Iowa Constitution, Section 1
  • Iowa Code: 704.1, 704.3, 704.4, 704.5 and 707.6
  • Teachers and schools are immune from liability criminally and civilly for acting in the reasonable defense of self and others.

Iowa was further informed that:

The reality of the regulation banning prone restraint will force school personnel to call security and law enforcement who will then place the student in a prone hold while shuffling them off to the nearest precinct. In reality, the regulation will do nothing except place the students and school personnel in more danger, while increasing the student’s chances of being involved with law enforcement. Schools that have implemented this policy of calling law enforcement have seen an average of a 22% increase in youth incarceration, an increase in bad behavior in the classroom and significantly more restrictive use of force interventions because the situation was allowed to escalate.

Now the above is coming to pass and the teachers and well-behaving students are bearing the burden.

Extreme & Violent Student Behavior Pushing Iowa Teachers to Breaking Point