Recent reports that violence against teachers in Queensland state schools has quadrupled are alarming, but they are not surprising to those of us working in the domestic and family violence sector. What is happening in classrooms today reflects patterns we have been tracking for years and predicts the cases we see tomorrow.
Across Queensland, DFV specialist services are supporting women who describe partners whose controlling behaviours, hostility toward women, and sense of entitlement echo what teachers are now reporting from boys as young as 12. We see the same language. The same attitudes. The same belief that women exist to be dominated.
A 2024 study by Dr Stephanie Wescott and Professor Steven Roberts from Monash University, published in Gender and Education, documented sustained sexual harassment, misogyny, and overt displays of male dominance by boys in Australian schools. Researchers found that schools are no longer safe workplaces for many women. They linked this directly to the influence of online “manfluencers” and the “manosphere” who promote regressive views of masculinity and frame women as unfairly advantaged.
On the other side, research published in June 2025 by Professors Kate Fitz-Gibbon and Steven Roberts from Monash University examined the educational impact of DFV on over 1,600 young Australians. Their findings revealed that less than one in five young victim survivors disclosed their experiences to school staff, and those who did often reported feeling dismissed or retraumatised. Young people described being unable to concentrate in class after nights of family violence, missing school to care for family members after violent episodes, and having educational tools deliberately withheld by perpetrators. The researchers concluded that Australian schools need trauma informed and DFV specialist informed training, clear referral pathways to specialist services, and flexible attendance policies for students affected by family violence.
The Queensland Government has recognised that patterns of control and dominance are central to understanding domestic and family violence. As Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Amanda Camm stated when Queensland’s coercive control laws came into effect:
“Coercive control is almost always an underpinning dynamic of domestic and family violence. It can include physical and non-physical forms of abuse and creates a climate of fear, humiliation, isolation, that over time, erodes the victim’s sense of identity, freedom and independence.” – Hon. Amanda Camm MP, Queensland Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, May 2025
The Continuum from Classroom to Crisis
These dynamics of control, dominance and entitlement do not emerge fully formed in adulthood. They are learned and reinforced across multiple settings: in homes, online, in peer groups, and in schools. What researchers are now documenting in Australian classrooms is one part of a broader picture, but it is a critical one, because schools are where we can positively intervene before attitudes solidify into long term behaviour.
The research tells us that attitudes formed in childhood, about power, gender, and acceptable behaviour toward women, do not disappear when young people leave school. They crystallise. They escalate. And they show up, years later, in the overwhelming numbers seeking support from our services.
Queensland’s Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Strategy 2016-2026 identifies that shifting community attitudes and behaviours is a foundational element of ending domestic and family violence. The Strategy explicitly recognises that prevention, early intervention and response must work together across the continuum. What we are witnessing in schools is a critical point on that continuum where intervention can make a difference.
An Opportunity to Move Forward with Intention
The Queensland Government’s $44 million Behavioural Boost and $33 million anti bullying plan demonstrate a commitment to safer schools. These investments signal recognition that something must change in our classrooms. For the students and the teaching staff. QDVSN welcomes this acknowledgment and sees an opportunity to connect school-based responses with the specialist expertise of the domestic and family violence sector.
The research tells us what works. Schools need staff trained to recognise and respond appropriately to disclosures of family violence. They need clear referral pathways to specialist DFV services who provide specialised responses to young children and young people who are experiencing DFV. They need flexible policies that accommodate the realities young victim survivors face. This capability does not need to be built from scratch. It already exists within Queensland’s specialist DFV sector.
Across the state, frontline workers in DFV services hold deep expertise in trauma informed practice, risk assessment, and safety planning, especially when working with young people and children. They understand the dynamics of coercive control, the barriers to disclosure, and the complex needs of children and young people living with violence. This expertise is available to schools, but only if funding supports genuine partnerships between the education and DFV sectors.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
The cost is not just financial. The $80 million Queensland paid in WorkCover claims for teacher injuries in 2023-24, as reported by the Queensland Government, tells part of the story. But the deeper cost is measured in lives lost, families shattered, unsafe spaces and communities carrying trauma that spans generations. Every woman killed by a partner or family member in Queensland is not a statistic. She is a mother, a daughter, a sister, a colleague. Her death leaves a wound in the community that never fully heals.
When schools are equipped to identify family violence as a driver of student behaviour and distress, and when clear pathways exist to connect students and families with specialist support, the investment in behaviour management becomes part of a broader prevention strategy. Without this connection, we are risk managing symptoms while the underlying conditions remain untreated.
“Our frontline workers see the tail end of this story every day. We see the women and children trying to leave relationships where controlling behaviour, contempt for women, and a belief in male entitlement have escalated to the point of crisis. What is being reported in schools is not separate from our work. It is the beginning of it. “ – The Executive Team, Queensland Domestic Violence Services Network
The Queensland Domestic Violence Services Network has been appointed to establish the state’s peak body for Domestic and Family Violence. QDVSN represents the frontline workers, specialist and other human sector services, and communities affected by gendered violence.
As Queensland’s DFV peak, we are committed to working alongside government as partners in the right solutions. We bring to the table decades of frontline expertise, evidence-based practice, and a deep understanding of the connections between what happens in our schools, our homes, and our courts.
QDVSN calls on the Queensland Government to ensure its investments in school safety are informed by evidence and supported by the expertise of the specialist DFV sector. Specifically, we call for:
- Funded partnerships between schools and specialist DFV services to build school-based capability in recognising and safely responding to family violence
- Investment in the specialist DFV sector to provide training and consultation to educators, building sustainable expertise across the school system
- Clear referral pathways from schools to DFV services, ensuring young victim survivors can access specialist support
- Inclusion of specialist DFV sector representatives in the design and implementation of school-based behaviour and wellbeing initiatives
- Continued investment in evidence based respectful relationships education as a foundation for cultural change
The patterns forming in classrooms today will show up in our services tomorrow. Investing in the specialist sector now means investing in the safety and women and children and ultimately safer communities all round. We are ready to work with government to ensure Queensland’s children grow up safe, and Queensland’s teachers can do their jobs without fear.
QDVSN
