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Educators across the country were undoubtedly rattled by the release yesterday of the School Community Safety Advisory Panel report, which suggests there may have been hundreds of incidents of violence within the Toronto District School Board that have gone unreported by teachers.

But some teachers say they are not equipped or trained to deal with the serious array of behaviours and issues being exhibited by students today, and that zero-tolerance policies often directly conflict with the pressure to keep kids - especially those from at-risk backgrounds - in school.

"There are kids whose behaviour is so bad that 20 years ago they'd be told to leave school - they don't want to be there, they're not respectful, they're aggressive and quite prepared to be violent if they need to be - and yet the school system is trying to keep them in school and trying not to disaffect them by punishing them for everything," said one Toronto teacher, who asked not to be named. "So consequently, there's a bit of a mixed message."

Ken Coran, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said individual school boards and the Ministry of Education have clear guidelines about what incidents must be reported by teachers and other school workers.

"Any issue of safety should receive the utmost attention as quickly as possible," he said. "We would certainly hope that all issues would be reported to the administration."

But, he added, some teachers are finding that action is not always taken when they do report incidents to their superiors.

"A lot of the time, teachers' actions could be nurtured by what has happened in past similar situations," he said.

"Lets say that teacher X reported something and the administration chose not to do anything with it. If a similar situation came forward again, would that teacher be more hesitant to bring it to the administration's attention? I think that would be human nature."

Mr. Coran agreed that there is "tremendous pressure" on schools to increase graduation rates and success among students, a goal that sometimes conflicts with the reality of today's school environments.

"A lot of this stuff is really more societal problems - there's so much poverty, so much gang involvement," he said. "Teachers are grappling with some really important and complex issues and I don't think this situation is going to disappear overnight."

Morven Orr, a teacher with 30 years of experience who works with the Toronto District School Board's Beginning Teacher Coaches program, said she recommends that educators report all potential issues to their principal.

"They should have been given some advice in teacher's college. You're certainly made aware of your legal obligations," she said. "I would immediately tell them to talk to their boss."

But Ms. Orr said that being able to discern which problems require outside intervention can be extremely fraught.

"When a child presents with a problem, you have no idea what might have caused it," she said. "And although as a teacher it's important to keep the idea of abuse in your head, you can't phone someone every time a child is sad, or depressed or crying. There's a million reasons."

Mr. Coran believes that school boards simply need more bodies, and that an infusion of teachers, educational assistants and support staff would go a long way toward helping teachers deal with the problems outlined in the report, including gun incidents, robberies and sexual assaults.

"All of these things require a lot of professional attention," he said. "This behaviour needs to be corrected and not just ignored."

Ms. Orr said many teachers are also mindful of making false accusations or suggesting any interventions when none is necessary, a move that can alienate students and anger their parents."If you do phone [the authorities], the parent often knows it's come from the school and they're furious if there's no reason for it," she said. "They're often furious if there is a reason for it."