‘You are literally on your own’: principals unsupported to handle rising critical incidents

Led by ACU’s Associate Professor Theresa Dicke, the study involving 351 Australian principals found more than 80 per cent had endured critical incidents in their schools including violent security threats, mental health crises, suicide attempts and various medical emergencies.

More than 70 per cent of reported critical incidents were deemed by school leaders as being of “high” or “extreme” severity, with those in WA and Tasmania reporting the highest number.

Dicke said the data and comments ‘highlight serious and significant fears’ about the increasing nature and severity of critical incidents in schools and the ability of ‘burdened’ school leaders to continue to muster the resilience to deal with them.

“Incidents keep cropping up and I jump from incident to incident. It is the accumulation of demands and the lack of resources that wears me down. I’m 11 years into principalship ... I won’t make 20,” one principal reported.

Another noted that in-school violence was fast becoming ‘commonplace’.

“And there just seems to be more knife incidents, and more violence happening within schools… We need to do something about that, because we want our schools to be safe places to be.”

Tellingly, all participants said changes or improvements were needed to better support school leaders to manage critical incidents.

“…when it comes to critical incidents, the system is not set up to actually support key players. You are literally on your own, until it becomes an issue for the system itself. It is truly a disgraceful situation,” one argued.

Some 57 per cent of leaders did not feel sufficiently prepared to handle critical incidents when they struck.

Meanwhile, almost 67 per cent experienced ‘cumulative trauma’ caused by multiple critical incidents occurring without a chance to recover.

This negatively impacted on their own mental health and family relationships, the study found.

“I find my sleep is often interrupted at 3am with ruminating or catastrophising over the incident or incidents,” one confessed.

“I think the issue is compounding trauma, and compounding stress… it’s just ongoing,” said another.

Security threats made up the most critical incidents in schools (21.2 per cent), followed by mental health crises (12.3 per cent), suicide threats or attempts (10.8 per cent) bullying (10.8 per cent), and medical emergencies (9.9 per cent), the research found.

“Parents being violent at school, striking people within the school grounds. I’ve had students bring weapons to school with the intent to use them,” one principal commented.

Funded by the Principals Australia Research Foundation, Dicke indicated the study ought to be a wake-up call for all state and territory governments to act.

“School leaders have been emphatic in calling for changes and improvements to better support school leaders in managing critical incidents, both during and afterwards,” she said.

“But they cannot do it alone. They need significant systemic support to create meaningful change.”

While 42.3 per cent of school leaders felt they coped ‘very well’ or ‘extremely well’ with critical incidents, this resilience "masks the true picture”, Dr Paul Kidson warns.

The report’s key recommendations include having a standardised incident response roadmap, in-house psychological support for school leaders, improved communication with emergency services, better training and time off ‘without stigma’ for school leaders following critical incidents.

Data from the most recent Australian Principals Health & Wellbeing Survey confirms critical incidents are placing our school leaders under immense pressure.

Some 74 per cent of 1878 respondents had experienced a critical incident, most commonly violence and security threats (43.9 per cent), student and school community deaths (14.9 per cent), suicides or suicidal threats (12.6 per cent), and medical emergencies (10.3 per cent).

Former school principal and ACU researcher Dr Paul Kidson said school leaders reported that factors spanning poor mental health, abuse from parents, COVID fallout, social media, and deteriorating community attitudes towards school staff had contributed to the deluge of critical incidents.

“While 42.3 per cent of participants felt they coped ‘very well’ or ‘extremely well’ with each of these critical incidents, this resilience masks the true picture,” Kidson warned.

“School leaders also reported that too many incidents are not only severe, but that they feel under-prepared, under-supported, and under pressure to deal with them in highly stressful urgent atmospheres.”

The Tasmanian Principals Association, a research partner, is now advocating for systemic changes to deal with the higher prevalence of security threats and mental health incidents faced by Tasmanian school leaders, including implementing better training and a triage system for post-incident support. 

The study found 85 per cent of Tassie school leaders had experienced at least one critical incident, while more than half had experienced two or more.

Nearly three-quarters of school leaders in the state ranked incident severity as “high” or “extreme”, while 56.6 per cent rated themselves as “not prepared” or only “somewhat prepared” to handle incidents.

Another ACU study looking at the barriers women leaders face in schools found they experienced higher levels of burnout in their roles.

Kidson told EducationHQ much of this came down to a set of assumptions about gender roles that society is still finding difficult to ‘shrug off’.

“For men in the senior leadership roles, there is very limited expectations, often explicitly or implicitly placed on them, about domestic duties or other responsibilities outside of their working life,” he said.

“Well, that’s not the case for women. They are predominantly still carrying a disproportionate amount of domestic or other duties, as well as their work duties.”