Several Medford School District elementary school teachers and a classroom volunteer told the school board Thursday night about violent outbursts in the classroom and teacher injuries at the hands of students.

Jennifer Mock, a third-grade teacher at Lone Pine Elementary, described concerns that increasingly severe behavioral problems are being tolerated and excused.

“Teachers in my building have literally been punched in the face by students,” Mock told school board members meeting at Oakdale Middle School. Only hours earlier, a rally was held by the Medford Education Association outside Oakdale highlighting ongoing union contract negotiations with the district, part of which center on working conditions for teachers.

For information from the Medford School District on contract updates, visit www.medford.k12.or.us/Page/7014.

Mock described the consequence for a student hitting a teacher as short suspensions where the pattern of violence repeats over and over again. In one instance, a student kicked a teacher “hard enough to leave bruises for weeks” only to be suspended again, “then comes back, trashes the classroom, hits staff, spits all over the teacher, verbally assaults staff, physically assaults them over and over dozens of times.”

“If that isn’t shocking, it should be,” Mock said.

Two other teachers and one parent volunteer told the board about incidents of violence in elementary school classrooms. They spoke during a time for the public to make comments to the board, which was meeting in regular session.

The comments from teachers largely highlighted the need for revisions to classroom working conditions related to Article 12 of the pending contract, which will be discussed in a bargaining session slated for Nov. 28 at association headquarters.

Jaci Jamison, MEA organizing chairwoman, told the board that Article 12 is “what keeps us safe; it’s what keeps us sane.”

She urged the board to keep visiting schools and keep coming to bargaining sessions.

“Please remember we need to be seen and we need to be heard,” Jamison said.

The Rogue Valley Times reached out to the Medford School District on Friday, but a spokesperson said officials would not be available for comment until early next week. The district, however, issued the following statement regarding student behavior and safety on its web page with union bargaining updates:

“Safety and security of students and staff are shared values in the Medford School District. Challenging student behavior continues to be a top concern for everyone in MSD. We know students are coming to us with higher levels of needs. The pandemic exacerbated this locally and nationally, and it continues to be a top priority,” the statement reads.

A two-page fact sheet listed numerous “strategic investments to support student and staff safety” across the district. Those include the hiring of Social Student Emotional Advocates at elementary schools; de-escalation training, including 158 staff members certified with the Crisis Prevention Institute; creating a district-wide Crisis Behavior Support Team; and hiring a crisis prevention manager for its Student Wellness Department, which “trains and consults on student safety, including harm to self and threats to others.”

The district acknowledged that a host of challenges persist, including understaffing, difficulty finding behavior management training time and meeting requirements of laws set by the state, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

“We acknowledge that the solutions can be frustratingly slow to produce tangible changes,” a district statement reads in part. “We are consulting with school districts across the country to explore solutions.”

Noel Slocum, who identified herself as a mother of a Medford School District first-grader and “an active volunteer in his class,” shared with the school board her accounts of classroom violence she’s seen volunteering in her son’s class.

In one instance, Slocum described one elementary school student coming close to using a chair as a weapon before she intervened.

“I watched as a child approached the class while they were sitting on the floor with a chair lifted upside down over his head — I had to use my body as a barrier and grab the chair before he could do anything to tragically hurt those kids,” Slocum said.

The chair-raising incident occurred while the teacher was addressing “other catastrophes in the room,” Slocum said, describing “kids running from the classroom slamming the doors, et cetera.”

“The amount of out-of-control behavior is simply unbelievable,” Slocum said. “I’ve personally witnessed students flipping over desks and chairs; jumping on the counters, desks; flipping their body over other students while simultaneously kicking other students in the face and leg.”

She told the board that she and another parent have had multiple meetings with district leaders about the behavioral issues “and at this point, we’re exhausted.” 

“The support is not there,” Slocum said. “The teacher is expected to weather the storm all on her own, and at this point it is shameful.”

In other action at Thursday’s meeting:

• The school board passed a handful of district policy changes, one of which will allow retired staff to be hired for hard-to-fill positions. The revised retirement policy allows district employees to be hired either as a temporary worker or in part-time classified positions of 5.75 hours per day or less.
• North Medford High School band director Steve Kessler was honored by the school board for being awarded Southern Oregon Regional Teacher of the Year. Principal Allen Barber said, “He takes pride in his work, makes connections with his students and is a perfect example of what the Tornado Standard is.”