Drawing on the critical incident testimonies given by some 256 principals nationwide, the research led by Monash University reveals our school leaders are increasingly expected to manage escalating physical threats, violence and systemic neglect in their roles, and are doing so without sufficient funding or support from government.

Lead author Professor Jane Wilkinson maintains one of the most concerning findings is the ‘egregious’ forms of gendered violence and harassment targeting women leaders.

Wilkinson says the team featured a ‘particularly nasty’ comment one rural secondary school principal received from a male parent in the final report, because it “exemplified some of the sort of really edgy misogyny that some of these women were talking about”.

“[He said], something along the lines of ‘do what I say, b**ch, I own you, this town owns you’.

“That came out of a critical incident testimony where the female principal was taking action against a secondary male student, actually the child of this [aggressor], who had been exhibiting violence and aggressive behaviours, not only towards staff, but towards other students…” she tells EducationHQ. 

Wilkinson says the remark formed part of a broader pattern of violent, misogynistic behaviour from community members that emerged from principals’ accounts.

“Can I say, this is not an isolated incident…

“And let me tell you, male principals are experiencing high levels of violence. So, it's not to say that the men aren't also experiencing this and suffering – they are.

“But perhaps for societal reasons, we're still not as advanced as perhaps we should be in terms of gender equality,” she added.

A study from 2024 found Australian boys are increasingly falling prey to a ‘regressive masculinist supremacy’ espoused by notorious ‘manfluencers’ such as Andrew Tate, with teachers reporting disturbing shifts in their behaviour and attitudes towards women.

Compounding the distress and emotional labour faced by women principals is the minimisation and blasé attitudes to their reports of violence that appear to be a fixture within education departments, Wilkinson flagged.

“Anecdotally, and from the principal critical incident testimonies and some of the stakeholder interviews, we were hearing that when women principals reported really egregious types of violence that they or their education staff were having to endure on a regular basis, that was minimised.

“And just a kind of ‘suck it up, princess’ attitude so to speak…”

One male interviewee, an experienced principal who had worked extensively in the Occupational Health and Safety space, said he had seen a clear pattern where women principals' testimonies of violence were routinely diminished and not taken seriously.

“He said if it were a male principal that was reporting this, the department would absolutely be stepping up and saying, ‘no, that's not okay, we can't tolerate this’.

“And certainly, another stakeholder who has had 20 years’ of experience working in OH&S with educators made a very similar comment,” Wilkinson shared.

Researchers also found that the escalating violence cast at principals had become normalised, to the extent that it was now considered just ‘part of the job’.

Well over half of participants described a critical incident involving physical violence, threats of violence and/or gendered violence or sexual harassment or abuse.

Principals also reported that bureaucratic hurdles can delay interventions, leaving them exposed to real harm.

In particular, the apparent normalisation of violence amongst school leaders is deeply worrying, Wilkinson suggests.

“What really shocked us, perhaps naively, was how this violence seems to have become normalised … it's just what goes with the territory.

“I think that was very sobering because some of the kinds of incidents that we're talking about were chilling – they are absolutely chilling.”

Enduring violence at the hands of your school community is now considered just part and parcel of being a principal, the report suggests. 

One female principal from a rural school described an incident when a parent became “very volatile” after their child was suspended for hitting another student.

“… An added frustration was that their child did not receive [a sought-after] award. As a result, the parent verbally abused me, [damaged] my car, took photos of my number plate and posted it on social media ... The parent sent threatening messages about me to [staff] …”

The principal reported fearing for her own safety and that of her staff, bringing in onsite security, filing a police report and finally obtaining a restraining order preventing the parent from coming onto the school site or being near her.

The testimonies suggest that school workplaces are frequently neither physically nor psychosocially safe for many principals or the staff and students in their care, Wilkinson indicates.

And while state government campaigns to raise awareness that threatened or actual violence against school staff are a welcome move, they are clearly not enough to address the challenges on the ground, the researchers argue.

Indeed principals said they felt “felt at risk” and “hated going to work”, with one reporting they “had a recurring dream that [they were] shot in the head” as a result of the trauma they were experiencing.

The toll on principals is profound, Wilkinson said, with many suffering in silence behind a mask of professionalism while turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms behind the scenes to make it through.

“Some of them drink a lot – drinking comes up as a coping tactic. They [say] things like, ‘my alcohol consumption tripled that week’.

Many emotionally detach from their work altogether, Wilkinson adds.

“But what that does is, it kind of creates an emotional numbness which can eventually lead to burnout. It’s what psychologists call ‘alienation’. 

“I would say that a healthy side of all of this is that when principals feel supported by their employer, when they feel that they are part of a larger group of others – that they're not alone in experiencing this – then that can make an enormous difference.”

Co-author Professor Lucas Walsh says we can no longer ignore the reality that principals are bearing the emotional and physical brunt of rising aggression within communities.

“This report calls for a whole-of-government response that recognises emotional labour as central to educational leadership and prioritises the safety, wellbeing and sustainability of Australia’s public school principals,” he says.

“Their stories are often horrific and we can no longer turn away from them as people and as central figures in schools throughout Australia.”

The study puts forward a string of recommendations for the system and for schools at the local level to tackle the problem.

These include convening a national summit on school violence to develop a coordinated occupational health and safety strategy (with ‘rigorous accountability milestones’ built in, Wilkinson offers), as well as establishing clinical and pastoral supervision for all principals that would run externally to their employment. 

“Principals are responsible for the safety of their staff and the children and their care, but my question is, who's caring for the principal? Who's responsible?

“And of course it's the employer, but at this stage it certainly seems like the duty of care towards principals is lapsing,” Wilkinson says.

The report is the third in a series that examines key themes arising from the ‘Invisible Labour: Principals’ Emotional Labour in Volatile
Times’​ project.