Last year, the Swedish Work Environment Agency received 850 reports of threats and violence at school, which is an increase of 450 reports since 2012.
The reports mainly concern students who have attacked teachers with threats, punches or strangulation.
– But it’s not just teachers who are affected, it’s also student assistants, those who work in the school canteen or student health care, says Annika Schmidt, project manager at the Work Environment Agency.
“It’s important that you feel safe”
In order to get a better picture of what it looks like, the Work Environment Agency has sent out inspectors to approximately 1,000 schools around Sweden.
– We want to see that employers have good preventive work environment work regarding threats and violence, it is important that you have talked through those things so that you feel safe about it, says Annika Schmidt.