Testimony of Randi Weingarten, President, United Federation of Teachers, before the New York State Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Hazard Abatement Board, June 23, 2003

Good morning. I am Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which represents approximately 100,000 employees in New York City's public schools. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the issue of workplace violence and its impact on UFT members.

We strongly support the proposal that the state labor commissioner set a standard for safety and security in public sector worksites. A rigorous safety standard would make the staff in our schools safer -- and that would make schools more secure for everyone, including our students.

We need a Workplace Safety and Security Standard because the existing law and regulations have failed to convince our employer to take all of the steps needed to make schools safe.

Just look at the disturbing surge in violence we're seeing in our schools this year, after eight years of a steady decline in incidents. For example:
" A 6-year-old 1st-grader at PS 18 in the Bronx used a chair to assault two teachers and a school social worker who tried to prevent him from choking a classmate. The social worker needed three staples to close a head wound and the two teachers were treated for injuries. The student was suspended for 10 days - but the assault was not considered a crime because of his age.
" A 16-year-old middle school student at IS 202 in Queens used a garbage can to strike a paraprofessional in the head and neck during a cafeteria fight. The para suffered contusions and the student was arrested on criminal assault charges.
" At DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, another paraprofessional suffered severe head trauma when she was assaulted while trying to break up a fight among students.

Schools should be havens where educators can teach and children can learn. Our members, who work so hard to teach, should not have to fear for their safety while doing their jobs. And students should not have to fear coming to school.

But the sad reality is that New York's schools are more dangerous than they were a year ago. The last pages of my prepared testimony give more details, but let me mention just a few of the most troubling statistics:
" This year total incidents involving school staff members were up 22.7 percent totaling 2,655 through the end of April.
" In the first eight months of this school year, we tallied 26 percent more assaults against UFT members than in all of last year. There were an appalling 869 assaults on school staff through April, up from 690 last year.
" Particularly alarming is what's happening in elementary schools, which saw a significant jump in assaults. There were 388 through April, up from 254 for all of last year - a 52.8 percent increase.
" Assaults in high schools also rose significantly, 130 this year against 104 last year - a 25 percent increase.
" Physical harassment was up 36 percent.
" And reckless endangerment increased by 18 percent.

The UFT figures are substantially higher than the 8 percent drop in incidents reported by the city Department of Education. There are a couple of reasons.
" First, the DOE figures come from school administrators -- not from staff members - and I have to note that having a school that appears to be safe is a factor in the system's evaluation of principals.
" Second, the city's figures are based on Police Department statistics which cover only crimes. Some incidents - for example, those involving youngsters under the age of 7, no matter how serious - are not considered crimes, regardless of how serious the injury may be.

We're alarmed by the upsurge in violence and by the DOE's lackadaisical approach toward ending it. The mayor and the DOE promised several solutions, but have failed to fully deliver on them. I'm talking about:
" Creating separate sites in which to educate the most disruptive students, including the so-called "new beginnings centers." Only about half of those promised now exist, and they opened late in the school year.
" Hiring additional school safety agents. With the current high attrition rate, it may well be we'll start the next school year with fewer than we had last September.
" And revising the student code of conduct and enforcing it in a way that ensures meaningful consequences for inappropriate behavior.

These steps, while useful if they occur, are not enough. We need to make it very clear to students that if an educator is assaulted there will be a swift consequence.

The Legislature and governor have already taken steps to make that happen. In 2000 the state enacted the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act.
" This law, known as SAVE, gave teachers the authority to remove disruptive students from their classrooms.
" The law also mandated that school systems create school safety plans and codes of conduct. Since these mandates would likely meet the proposed standard's requirements for workplace security analysis and work practice procedures, school districts should have a relatively easy time complying.

But SAVE didn't go far enough. Unfortunately, it does not have an enforcement mechanism -- and New York City's schools have failed to implement it fully. Often, disruptive students are merely moved from one teacher's class to another. This is not in keeping with either the letter or the spirit of the law.

Additionally, there are few, if any, sanctions if a school fails to follow SAVE's requirements. I'm talking about things like holding mandated school safety meetings, or providing regular and ongoing safety training for school staff, or reporting school-related incidents, or calling the police when a crime has been committed, or even enforcing the district's own student disciplinary policies.

The UFT has gone to court, challenging the DOE's failure to enforce its student discipline code and its contention -- using the cloak of "management rights" -- that teachers have no right to question the Department's failure to enforce its code of conduct.

Indeed, the DOE consistently seeks to avoid responsibility when our members are injured. Let me tell you one more story, about a junior high school special education teacher named Anita Pasucci.

Anita attended mandatory workshops in emergency procedures and received a safety manual detailing emergency procedures for staff. When two students began fighting in her classroom, she followed procedures, twice signaling over the intercom for help - but help did not arrive. One of the students tackled her and, when she fell to the floor, banged her head, neck and back with the classroom's heavy metal door.

She filed a personal injury lawsuit against what was then the Board of Education. It had the audacity to argue that it had no "special duty" to protect her from assault. Earlier this month, the Appellate Division, First Department, disagreed, holding that when a municipality assumes a duty to protect its employees and subsequently fails to act, it can be found liable for injuries that result (Pasucci v. New York City Board of Education, N.Y. App. Div. No. 2509, 5/1/03). The appellate court ordered that her claim go to trial.

Regardless of how her lawsuit turns out, from a moral standpoint it's clear that if the school system says it wants to make schools safe, it has to act in ways that do so.

The DOE may be able to bob and weave in the courts, trying to avoid culpability in a lawsuit, but what about the conditions it allowed to exist in the school? How can the state help assure that schools are safe and that teachers like Anita Pasucci don't suffer serious injury?

This is where the proposed Workplace Safety and Security Standard comes in.

In our view, more effective regulation and monitoring - including a mechanism for sanctioning a public employer that does not follow the requirements of law - is an absolute necessity.

This would not conflict with SAVE. Rather, it would enhance the law and it can be enforced. The New York State Department of Labor's Public Employees Safety and Health Bureau (PESH) has the inspection force, procedures and legislative framework for enforcing standards. That is what we need.

Do workplace health and safety standards reduce worker injuries and illnesses? Absolutely.

Look at the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard. The Centers for Disease Control indicates that in 1997 an estimated 500 health care workers were infected with hepatitis B nationwide. That's more than 95 percent fewer infections than the 17,000 health care workers infected in 1983. That improvement is largely due to two components mandated by the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard - immunization of health care workers with the hepatitis B vaccine and the use of universal precautions.

We believe a Workplace Safety and Security Standard would have a similar impact on reducing injuries from workplace violence. With its help, we can more reasonably assure the safety of school-based educators, workers and students. That's why we urge you to recommend that the Commissioner of Labor promulgate a Workplace Safety and Security Standard.

Thank you for the opportunity you've given me to testify.

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NOTE ON UFT INCIDENT REPORTS

The UFT's incident data are compiled by our School Safety Department based on reports filed by our union's chapter leaders in every school. Our data collection and analysis are nationally recognized as models for tracking school-related incidents.

This year's increases are in sharp contrast to the previous eight years, when school incidents steadily declined. Starting in the 1995-96 school year, when there were 4,712 reported incidents involving school staff, a 1 percent drop from the 4,760 incidents the year before.

The largest percentage decrease was last year when the 2,164 reported incidents were down 32.3 percent from the 3,629 incidents reported in the 2000-01 school year.

Assaults previously peaked in the 1993-94 school year with 1,902 reported incidents. Last year we hit a 30-year low with 690 reported incidents. That was a 64 percent decline over the previous nine years.