By Alesha Capone
SCHOOL teachers from the West have filed more than 100 WorkSafe claims during the past 12 months.
Across the municipalities of Wyndham, Hobsons Bay, Brimbank and Maribyrnong, 104 teachers claims were lodged between November 2009 until October this year.
In Brimbank, teachers made 47 WorkSafe claims, with a fifth stating “high exposure to mental stress” as the reason.
Within the same time frame, Wyndham teachers filed 28 claims, Maribyrnong teachers lodged 17 and Hobsons Bay teachers made 12 claims with WorkSafe.
Figures supplied to Star revealed staff at state, private, secondary, primary and special schools made the WorkSafe requests.
Many of the claims were made as a result of injuries teachers sustained after falling or tripping over while they were at work, while others were for mental stress or “being hit by a moving object”.
Mr Birt said out the 47 teachers at Brimbank schools, 21 were away from work for more than two weeks or required treatment or medical attention costing more than $580.
Mr Birt said thousands of employees from industries across all the municipalities have needed more than 10 days off work after filing WorkSafe claims, during the past five years.
But he said many people returned to work “very quickly” after making the WorkSafe claims.
“I suppose the big thing out of all these sorts of things is that most people get back to work very quickly and don’t need any time off,” Mr Birt said.
“We do encourage people and schools to help staff to go back to work as soon as they can in a safe way and stay connected to the school community.”
The Department of Education said they could not say how many teachers resigned or were fired from schools in the West, as they did not collate statistics this way.
During August, Star reported 27 students have been expelled from government schools across the West in the first five months of the year.
A principal, who did not wish to be named, told Star some students have hit teachers or brought knives to school.
Werribee Secondary College principal Steve Butyn said in his 18 years at the school, only one student had ever been expelled.
The male student was expelled earlier this year for striking a teacher.
Also this year, Victoria University Secondary Collage in St Albans also considered suspending 21 students who cyber-bullied a teacher.
