LANSING – Michigan educators and school administrators agree that there should be more accountability and support for dealing with student misconduct, as violence against teachers and other school staff is getting worse.
“As far as violence or any kind of physical behavior and disruption, it is every day, several times a day,” said Chandra Fles, a teacher and behavior interventionist at Cherry Knoll Elementary School in the Traverse City Area Public Schools district and president of the Traverse City Education Association.
“It pops up everywhere. It’s a daily occurrence in our buildings,” she said.
Data from the Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information shows a total of 1,285 expulsions reported statewide in the 2023-24 school year.
According to MI School Data, public schools enrolled about 1.43 million students statewide that same year.
Expulsions included 962 students without disabilities. Among them were 313 incidents involving physical violence, 151 involving injury and 12 involving serious injury.
The center’s statistical report included several other categories of violence-related incidents, such as sexual assault and possession of weapons.
The report does not specify figures on less-drastic forms of discipline, such as suspension for violent acts.
The report also did not differentiate between student victims and staff victims.
According to MI School Data, the state’s official source for pre-K, K-12, postsecondary and workforce data, the Traverse City district reported suspending or expelling 613 students out of 8,584 enrolled during the 2024-25 school year.
That includes in-school suspensions, when a student is removed from class but remains under staff supervision; out-of-school suspensions, when a student is removed and sent to another setting, such as home or a behavior center; and expulsions, when a student is removed for the rest of the year or longer.
Students are counted only once in a school’s suspension or expulsion total, regardless of how many incidents resulted in disciplinary consequences.
For students in special education, discipline may also include removals by a hearing officer or unilateral removals by school personnel for up to 45 days when a student’s behavior poses a safety risk.
In the Alpena Public Schools district, 395 students out of 3,553 enrolled were reported “suspended and/or expelled” in the 2024-25 year.
Jackie Antkowiak, a Wilson Elementary teacher in Alpena, said she has gone to the hospital at least three or four times because of a child’s violent behavior.
Antkowiak has been a teacher there for 11 years.
“The first year that I worked for Alpena Public Schools, I had 12 incident reports where I was injured somehow or another by a child,” she said.
“I have gotten my wrist sprained. I had a child break every blood vessel in my hand. I have even been bitten in the breast by a child,” Antkowiak said.
The creation of a school violence task force by the Michigan Education Association was approved in May as educators say violence in classrooms continues to escalate.
The MEA is the state’s largest union representing and advocating for teachers and other school employees.
Doug Pratt, the MEA director of communications and public engagement, said the situation is not improving.
“There was a time when a call home from a teacher or principal would have been a serious call to action from parents or guardians. Too often, that’s not the case today,” Pratt said.
“Families have to do their part to be receptive partners with schools around behavior issues that their students might be experiencing and take steps to intervene,” he said.
Erinn Parker is a social studies teacher and president of the Stephenson Education Association in Menominee County’s Stephenson Area Schools.
“It’s especially prevalent in the elementary school,” Parker said.
“There are a lot of educators who every day, they’re being physically hit, kicked, bit, spit on, and attacked by students. And nothing’s happening about it,” she said.
Fles said that there was more of a code of conduct in the past that schools don’t have now.
“And my belief is just because of the fear of retaliation from parents, from the public and you also don’t want a student out of school because you want them in the education setting, but how do you fit everybody’s needs and safety?” she said.
Antkowiak said that sometimes the parents are the bigger problem because they get mad at teachers when their child’s upset.”
“It’s getting to the point where it’s really bad,” she said. “You don’t want to overstep, but then you talk to parents and they aren’t on board either. Some will even ask, ‘What did you do to upset my child?’
“Nowadays, parents aren’t parenting. They just don’t want to deal with them, so they give them a tablet, they give them a phone, they let them play video games,” she said.
“Parents just are not involved with their kids like they used to be. Some parents need to be taught that you’re a parent, not their friend. And yes, sometimes you have to hurt their feelings, and yes, you have to discipline them,” Antkowiak said.
