Physical Attacks: An Analysis of Teacher Characteristics Using the Schools and Staffing Survey.

This study investigated physical attacks as reported by public school teachers on the most recent Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) from the National Center for Education Statistics administered by the Institute of Educational Sciences. For this study, characteristics of teachers who responded affirmatively to having been physically attacked in the past 12 months were examined. Teacher characteristics associated with being physically attacked appeared to be proportionate to those found in the general population of teachers who were not physically attacked. Several notable exceptions were gender, school type, years of experience, and school location. The mean number of physical attacks varied greatly within all characteristics examined. Of the twelve teaching areas, special education had the highest percentage of teachers who reported being physically attacked in the past 12 months and the highest mean number of physical attacks per teaching area.