Putting violence in perspective: how safe are America's educators in the workplace?

As safety in schools continues to be in the national spotlight, the need to identify circumstances that jeopardize the educators' safety becomes pressing. Violent events capture our attention; however, do violent events compose the majority of educator workplace injuries and illnesses? If not, then what are the events and sources under which educators are hurt or killed on the job? To address these questions, we compare workplace violence experienced by educators with their overall workplace injuries and illnesses. Fatal injury data were taken from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and nonfatal days-away-from-work data from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. This article also examines differences in educator workplace injuries and illnesses by level of instruction, sector, and gender. From 2011 through 2014, transportation incidents led to the most fatalities among educators-violent events were the second most frequent. In 2014, falls, slips, and trips led to the most nonfatal days-away-from-work cases-violent events were the second most frequent.