Has Violence Against Teachers Become Accepted by Society?

Dr. Martin argues that violence against educators has become dangerously normalized, with society and school systems increasingly treating physical and verbal abuse as an expected part of teaching rather than an urgent workplace safety crisis.

When a student assaulted me, I braced myself for shock from the people I shared my story with. What I didn’t expect was the calm resignation in their responses, as if what happened was unfortunate but not surprising. Navigating the physical and emotional aftermath was hard, but realizing how normalized teacher violence has become was harder still. It left me wondering why society seems so willing to accept harm as part of the job.