DENVER — A Colorado task force is highlighting a rise in educator injuries as many students across the state head back to school Monday.
The state legislature put a task force into effect his year. It was able to pull together 17 members, according to Christine Harms, director of the Office of School Safety with the state Department of Public Safety.
"It ended up being 17 very committed members who took this very seriously, and we were supposed to look at what was happening in our schools when it came to educator safety, because anecdotally, we were hearing reports of educators being injured," Harms said.
They conducted a survey that showed just over 75% of the 1,100 school staff members who answered reported either having been injured by a student or having watched a colleague get injured.
"The comments were upsetting," Harms said. "Some folks said that they were injured daily. Others felt that administrators weren't supportive, that the educator was blamed for the injury."
Harms said the reported injuries varied from getting spit on to broken bones and concussions.
"What we felt was, in some cases, this is being normalized. Teachers are saying, being told that this is what you should expect when you take a teaching position, and we don't think that injuries to school staff should be normalized," Harms said.
The task force provided nearly two dozen recommendations, including establishing a space for educators and students to rest and recharge, forming incident response teams, and continuing trauma-informed practices.
