Dozens Of School Staff, Teachers Assaulted In Winnipeg In Past 2 Years

Between September 2012 and January 2014, there were more verbal assaults on staff than on students. There were 82 incidents involving the possession, use or threat of weapons, and 130 involved illegal drugs. In all, 1,381 students were suspended from the Winnipeg School Division, which has about 30,000 students, between September 2013 and January 2014. XXXX said the division has been stripping suspension reports of detail over the years, which he feels is unfair to parents and decision-makers. “The suspension reports that we're getting are very vague. They're very watered down. It'll say there's so many assaults. We don't know where they're coming from. They are broken down sometimes into districts, but each district has 20 different schools, so we don't know what's going on," XXXX said. “It's not a private company that we decided, 'We're not going to share that information.' The safety of our children is very important. “I've always wondered why people want to keep this information a secret, why they don't want to share information? The only thing I can think of is that the administration — this is a problem for them. People start questioning: 'Why are kids fighting? Why are there drugs in schools? What are we doing about it?'”