Montpelier — The teachers union affiliate in Rutland has filed a complaint with the state labor board alleging school administrators are ignoring concerns about student-on-staff violence and retaliating against union members for raising the issue.

A state Labor Relations Board complaint filed by the Vermont-National Education Association’s Rutland unit on Wednesday and announced on Thursday said the action follows years of escalating instances of student-on-staff violence, including more than 70 attacks on 33 educators in a six-month period this year.

Most of the incidents, some of which the complaint said sent teachers and para-educators to the hospital, involved students with special needs acting out, union and district officials said.

The Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated workplace safety in the Rutland schools this year and ended up with a settlement in which the school district was assessed $2,250. It said teachers and para-educators faced students “throwing, kicking, hitting or otherwise exhibiting inappropriate behavior.”

Vermont OSHA, a division of the state Department of Labor, reported a “lack of management commitment” to give educators the ability to “effectively deal with workplace violence.”

The union said retaliation occurred when school officials replied to the safety concerns by contending slips, trips and falls were the biggest employee safety problem and ordering employees to wear closed-toed shoes.

The wardrobe restriction amounted to punishment for raising safety concerns, the union contends.

“It’s really a slap in the face to the victims of violence in our schools, because it’s not taking them seriously,” said Ellen Green, a Rutland High School Spanish teacher and president of the union’s local unit.

Student-on-teacher violence is a growing problem around the country, said Darren Allen, spokesman for the statewide teachers’ union. He and Green said it was made worse in Rutland by an unwillingness by administrators to listen to staff concerns about the problem.

School Superintendent Mary Moran strongly disputed the union’s assertions, saying its complaint to the labor board and news release about it contained “numerous misstatements and fallacies.”

She said most of the incidents cited by the union involved “physical interactions by students with special needs.”

“Such students do not have the intent to harm or injure,” she said, and the union’s use of the term “assault,” a criminal act, is “disparaging to our students.”

Moran said the district takes seriously the safety of students and staff. She provided a copy of its safety policy and incident reporting protocol.