Occupational violence in the schools: a case-control study of physical assault against educators

Prior research has primarily focused on student-on-student school violence; yet, school educators are also at risk nationally and internationally. A two-phase study was designed to identify risk factors for assaults against educators (kindergarten-grade 12). Educators (n=26 000) were randomly selected from the Minnesota license database and screened for eligibility (6180, eligible) by mailed questionnaire. Phase I (12-month recall) identified eligible cases (n=290) and controls (n=867) and violent event characteristics; Phase II (case-control – 1-month recall prior to assault and randomly selected month, respectively) enabled identification of numerous exposures. Confounders were selected for multiple logistic regression analyses using directed acyclic graphs; reweighting adjusted for response and eligibility biases. For each study phase, response was 84%. Assault perpetrators were primarily students (95%). Risks (ORs; 95% CIs) increased for educators working in: special education (3.66, 2.46 to 5.44) and speech pathology (2.34, 1.08-5.10); urban (vs suburban) schools (1.96, 1.39 to 2.77); schools with