The number of violent incidents reported in Ontario’s schools grew last year to a point that critics call a “crisis,” with a third of all recorded violence concentrated in just five school boards.
New data, obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws, shows the number of violent incidents in Ontario classrooms has shot up by almost 80 per cent over the past seven years.
In 2023-24, the most recent year available, a total of 4,424 incidents were reported, and 1,497 of those were reported in just five boards.
An analysis of the data by Global News show four of the boards with the most violent incidents reported were in or near Toronto, with the fifth located in Ottawa.
The school board with the highest number of violent incidents in the province was the Peel District School Board.
Last year, Peel recorded 431 violent incidents, a drop from the 717 it recorded the year before. At the beginning of the pandemic, in the 2019-20 year, the Peel District School Board recorded an even higher rate of violence, with 976 incidents.
The Toronto District School Board, which is the largest board in the entire country, reported the second-highest number of violent incidents in 2023-24, with 410. That held relatively steady from the year before, when it reported 407.
There were 237,679 students enrolled at the Toronto District School Board in 2023-24, according to ministry data. The Peel District School Board had 148,917 students.
Dividing the number of violent incidents by student population gives Toronto a rate of 1.7 violent incidents per 1,000 students. Peel is substantially higher at 4.8 per 1,000.
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Third and fifth place were occupied by the two Halton Region school boards. The Halton District School Board reported 237 violent incidents last year, while the Halton Catholic board reported 206.
While Toronto and Peel are the largest boards in the province, both Halton boards have substantially smaller student populations.
The Halton District board is the ninth largest in Ontario, with 67,186 students. The Catholic board is 18th with a student population of just 36,110.
At Halton District, the rate of violent incidents is 3.5 per 1,000 students, compared to 5.7 in the Catholic board.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board had the fourth most violent incidents last year, with 213. It has 77,325 students, the seventh most in the province, and a rate of 2.8 incidents per 1,000 students.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education acknowledged the growing violence — but suggested the return of police officers to classrooms could be part of the solution.
“The rise in school violence also coincides with the shortsighted decision of many school boards across the province, starting in 2017, to end School Resource Officer programs in schools,” they wrote in a statement.
“This is why our government has introduced measures that will require school boards to work with police services to develop School Resource Officer.”
Opposition politicians, however, fear police could make the situation worse — and mask the need for more funding.
“Police are not the answer to the violence crisis,” NDP MPP Chandra Pasma said.
“They’re not trained mental health professionals; they do not have training in special education, in re-regulating dysregulated children. They can’t provide academic support to a kid who is going unnoticed in a class of 34. So, there’s really no role for them to play in helping to prevent the violence occurring in the first place.”
Joe Tigani, president of the Ontario School Board Council of Union, said the mention of policing was a distraction.
“Throwing more police into schools won’t fix this,” he said in a statement. “(Recent legislation) is nothing more than a smoke-and-mirrors distraction. It centralizes control and brings back policies that have already been proven to harm marginalized students. What students need are more education workers in classes to create the conditions that will prevent violent incidents from happening”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
