Teacher bullying - Does it happen?
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008
by Dr. Carla Goddard
Everyone is aware of peer on peer bullying and the Education system is emphatic about about not allowing the situation to arise and if it does how to protect the student who is being bullied. What about when teachers bully students. This receives virtually no attention. With the publicity surrounding peer to peer bullying, why is the idea of teacher to student bullying largely ignored in the education system today unless it involves sexual conduct? Is other types of bullying unplausible? Is there a definition for teacher bullying? Does it exist?
Victims are chosen on the basis of either vulnerability or because of some devalued personal attribute the teacher perceives of the student. Once targeted, the victim is treated in a manner which will set the student apart from their peers. The teacher makes frequent references to how the student differs from other students whom the teacher perceives as more capable or valuable. As a consequence, the student because a scapegoat among peers.
Teachers who do bully feel their abusive conduct is justified and claim provation by the student. They disquise their behavior as an appropriate part of the instruction, as well as disguising abuse as an appropriate disciplinary response to unacceptable behavior by the student. However, the student is subjected to deliberate humiliation by the teacher that can never ever serve as a legitimate educational purpose.
Students who are bullied by teachers feel confused, angry, fearful, full of self-doubt, and have profound concerns about their competencies both academically and socially. The student not understanding why they were targeted nor what they must do to end the bullying, over time, especially if no one in an authoritative position intervenes, feels they are to blame for the abuse and feel a sense of helplessness and worthlessness.
Teachers who bully employ a number of methods to deflect any complaints about their offensive conduct. Convincing or attempting to convince the target they are paranoid, that they have misperceived or misrepresented the behavior in question. As an example, an abusive teacher will argue that a student who complains is simply trying to excuse their questionable performance, thus shifting attention from the teacher's inappropriate conduct to a discussion of stands and student's motivation for complaining. This minimizes the effect of suggesting to other that what is truly at stake is merely a personal difference, rather than a systematic abuse of power.
The bullying by a teacher effectively produces a hostile climate for the student that is indefensible on academic grounds; undermining learning and the ability of a student to fulfll academic requirements. It shares at its core the same attributes of other abuses of power such as sexual harassment or hate crimes. A hate crime is simply bullying by target selection based on characteristics of race, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
The bullying is non-physical but nevertheless pervasive and powerful with the student fearing shunning and humiliation as much as physical harm. The threat of humiliation is used as a weapon in this case. The students feels literaly trapped in an environment where the abuse is imposed upon them and there is no escape. Any complaint abut the abusive behavior places the student at risk of retaliation by the teacher including the use of grades as a sanction.
Students are selected as targets based on some perceived difference by the teacher that is devalued. When the basis of the target selection is also based on discrminatory recognizable categories such as religion, it is called a hate crime. Regardless of selection process, bullying conduct by a teacher sends a clear message of fear that threatens the student, enhances their sense of vulnerability, and produces a loss of faith in the fairness of the schools.
A student victim feels emotionally distraught anf fearful, with no place to turn for help. When administration's do nothing to defend the student, they are confirming the teacher has a right to use professional authority and endorsing and tacitly legitimizing the abuser's mistreatment.
In the Supreme Court's ruling in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education the Davis Court defined that schools receiving federal funds may be held financially responsible where officials are "deliberately indifferent" to harassing behaviors including staff to student harassment that are "severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive". This ruling defined four criteria in considering school liability: 1)school officials had actual knowledge of conduct, 2) schools were deliberately indifferent to conduct, 3) school had control of the abuser and where it occurred, and 4) the school's response or lack of response was unreasonable given such knowledge. The ruling also suggests that schools have in pace policies and procedures to address abusive conduct such as teacher-student harassment/abuse. In effect, if the school has allowed behavior that creates a hostile environment for student in a classroom, and school officials have been given appropriate notice but fail to act, then the school risks both compensatory and punitive damages.
This one case alone proves that teacher bullying does exist. This case holds Administrators accountable for the actions of the teachers. If your student is a victim of teacher bullying, speak up and speak out. Sometimes as parents we are the only voice that is heard. It is our responsibility as parents to hold our educators responsible for their actions and behaviors.
Here are some differences between maintaining classroom control and bullying according to The Florida Anti Bullying Campaign;
Educators let students know they care. Bullies let students know who's the boss.
Educators teach self-control. Bullies exert their own control.
Educators set ironclad expectations. Bullies rule with whims of steel.
Educators diffuse minor disruptions with humor. Bullies to disruptions into confrontations.
Educators privately counsel chronic discipline problems. Bullies publically humiliate chronic misbehaviors.
Educators are judicious. Bullies are judgmental.
Educators, aware of the power they wield over their students, choose their words and actions carefully. Bullies wield their power, recklessly, frequently resorting to anger and intimidation.
Educators help all students feel successful. Bullies punish students for being unsuccessful.
Educators address misbehavior. Bullies attack the character of the misbehaviors.
Educators see each student's uniqueness. Bullies compare children to one another.
Educators treat all students with respect. Bullies make it clear that not all students deserve respect.
Educators highlight good behavior. Bullies make examples of poor behavior.
Educators are proactive; they create classroom environments that minimize student misbehavior.
Bullies are reactive; they blame students for the lack of order in their classroom.
Educators educate. Bullies humiliate.
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Top-level comments on this article: (10 total)yes, my son was bullied by his 5th grade teacher. The principal protected her and although the superiintendent finally agreed that she was wrong, nothing ever happened to her. She was protected by the NJEA. I wish I had known that I could sue them, I would have. He was a straight A student who is failing in middle school and has anxiety. She is now teaching and bullying the third graders at our elementary school. She is protected by tenure. I loved this article. It said everything I wanted to say for years.
Rev. Carla,Four days ago, I removed my daughter from her Christian school of 10 years becuase her Christian teachers abused their authority, humiliated, singled out my daughter, and bore false witness against her. Even chritain teachers can be bullies too. As Christian parents in a christain school we have no laws to protect her and no recourse. We had no choice but to place her in a public high school. How sad!
I know my child is bullied by his teacher. Any well meaning and caring educator would not shut down lines of comunication with a parent. I have wrote notes to my childs teacher and have received no response. She(the teacher) requests homework be done. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? However, when my son presents his completed homework his teacher disagknowlages it. and has on more then one occation wrinkled up or tore up my sons completed assinments. My child is made to feel that his efferts, accademically are of no value to his teacher. This behaviour perpetuated by his teacher is nothing less then counter-productive. Not to mention emothinally damaging and hurtful to my sons futurer success accademicaly. He goes to school with a logical and natural exspectation that he can trust and be protectr by all teachers alike. I found many simalarities in the aove artical that closely resembale my son"s, teachers behaviour.Hi,
My name is Shalonte HOrn. My son is 9 years old in fourth grade. And I need help into stopping his teacher(female) From bullying him and harrassment. She also ripped his homework yesterday because he was late for school. My son also has problems with keeping his shoes tideand she said(teacher) if he doesnt keephis shoes tied then she will make him tie his shoes a hundred times. She makes nasty remarks to him. And she was over heard by another student that she hates my son. and that other student told my son that. My son over heard her himself say that he was stupid. He keeps asking me to take him out of school for a few days.
Sh humiliates him in front of his peers. whoo engaged in bullying him and choking him banging his head on the cafeteria tables but no teacher especially her wich stood outside of the cafeteria. And did not render aide to him. I went to the police and they said there was nothing thaey could do about it. And that was between me and the school board. Dist. 170 ChicagoHeights, Il.This is a ongoing situation
Thank you for this. My son was the victim of bullying by a teacher. She routinely singled him out for ridicule, punished him for not being able to keep up with some activities due to a disability, and wrote notes on his work comparing him unfavorably to other students in the class.Dealing with the school administration left us, his parents, feeling disempowered and confused. They used all of the deflection tactics you described, and were very good at it. If I hadn't possessed a physical copy of the notes she had written, I might have almost let them convince me my son was imagining things, even though he'd always loved his teachers up until this one.I'm going to print your list and pass it on to parents, teachers and school administrators. It is very clear and explains the issue well.
My issue is administrators who bully teachers in order to make them leave the school. There is no reason for the bullying other than perhaps that the teacher is more competent than the administrator or the teacher is "too old" for the administrator's liking. There is an age prejudice out there that blames older staff for all of the problems of the school district.From there I have seen it it disintegrate into teacher-on-teacher, teacher-on-student, and administrator-on-student bullying.There should be laws in place in every state to bar bullying in the schoolhouse. Period. There should be consequences for violation of these laws. If we really expect to be a model for our children, we should not bully in the schoolhouse.
this article was very helpful to me, I really appreciate when someone can really stand up , and speak up on behalf of our kids. thanks
I am a young teacher, this is my third year teaching. I have always taught at a parochial school where parents have a lot of pull and I have to say that I do think that bullying occurs from student to student, from parent to teacher, from teacher to parent, from administrator to teacher, from parent to administrator, from teacher to student, and even from student to teacher. This past year has been the worst year of my life. I have been accused of hateful behavior toward a student. I admit the student has been difficult because of his frequent misbehavior and no accountability required by his parents, but not by far the most difficult student I have ever had. There was a time when I could honestly say that there was no way I could bully a student, but as the year has progressed so have my own emotions. In my own situation, I had a student start the year with his parents on my back. They claimed that the student was being targeted as a bully and a scapegoat for the poor self-esteem of other students. The parents of the student felt like their son had been wrongly accused of bullying for the last two years, and they did not want me to accuse him also. So, the year began and again and again parents came forward to accuse the student and a couple of his friends of bullying. The bullying always occured at extracurricular activities, where incidentally the mother was in charge. I asked the principal to investigate and I stood up for the student again and again to his accusers, insisting that I had not witness any bullying behavior. However, as the year progressed I did witness the student teasing, tattling on, and picking on other students, typical of occurrences by all students at his age. I felt I was required to do something for the victims of this behavior, as I had when the behavior came from other students. So I confronted the students involved in the teasing. They confirmed that they were teasing, would apologize, and would stop doing so. Later the parents accused me of unfair treatment of their son because I pulled the student aside to discuss it. Similar incidences occurred three different times throughout the year and every time I was the one accused of bullying, while the boys behavior was justified by unrelated excuses. I was accused of allowing students who felt inferior to him slander him, because the students gossiped about how he had hurt others. I addressed the issue of gossiping and tattling on students with the class. However, I was told by the boys father that while I was to look the other way when students tattled on his son, the tattling his boy did should be seriously addressed because his son was a leader for justice. Half way through the year the accusations changed. The student was aware that his parents did not respect me and I felt he took advantage of the situation. Frequently he would disrupt the class with jokes, walking around to talk to his buddies, tattling because other students were out of uniform, or to complain about assignments. Our discipline policy is based around natural consequences, positive discipline (rewards), and refocusing by marking in the students planner unacceptable behavior so student and parent are aware of its occurence. The consequences include not earning rewards or praise, and whatever consequences the parents use for accountability. I also try to use natural consequences as often as the situation arrives. I teach small groups for reading, and have required students who are repeatitively disruptive during this time the task of copying the assigned reading text. On one occassion I assigned this particular student and his friend the task of copying the text, because they had interrupted the group three times. The student wasted the 30 minutes remaining, looking for his mother in the halls of the school, I was told this was his right and he did not complete the task. The other student completed the assignment. The following morning, the boys father showed up at my door to let me know that the task was unfair and that he handled his sons disruptive behavior by making him reread the text with him. What could I do? So, I accepted this as completion of the assignment. However, this undermining of my authority had disasterous ramifications. The boy now knew he didn't have to do what I asked. When I would notify his parents of unacceptable behavior with a refocus mark, the boy would simply laugh and turn this into another way to be disruptive. I was not allowed to send the student to the principal, because this was taking away his right to learn. On the rare occassion when I would give the boy, the "look", to let him know he was out of line, I was told I a hurt his feelings and did not respect him. I finally threw my hands up at the situation and just tried to get through the year, and ignore the unacceptable behavior but give sufficient praise for respectful behavior. Mondays were always hard days for the boy and I to get along. One Monday, the boy was particularly disruptive and refused to work in class. At the end of the day he said he had no homework and I reminded him that he did. He said he wasn't going to do it, because he had practice. I insisted that it needed to get done and that I expected him to come to class with the assignment completed. The following day he came to class and said he didn't do his homework. I said I was not surprised, as he had indicated yesterday it would not be completed. We moved on and the assignment was finished during study hall. By the end of the day, guess who was being accused of hateful and irresponsible behavior? Of course, the teacher, me. Please tell me what I did wrong. I begged my principal to intervene, I tried to reason with the parents, I tried to be the boys advocate again and again to other students and parents. Did I bully the student, by not being surprised when he insisted he was not going to do his work? I have been released from my contract, three weeks before the end of the year, and I still do not know if I am the bully or the victim.This situation reminds me of things that have happened to me as a teacher. Students can bully teachers and parents can bully teachers and administrators usually have nothing to say. I have found that if, as a teacher, I stick up for bullied students, the bullies then manage to add me to their bully list. Bullies are the first to tell their parents that their teachers are bullying them and their parents believe them. I don't know the solution since teachers are expected to address bullying. I hope you get a job less stress-filled and higher paying than teaching. Best wishes!
Oh, yes. It happens. I"ve seen it. It's disgusting. And you're right, not much is done about it.Thank you for this informative, well-written article.
Crystal
Thank you for writing. This is heart-breaking. The comments are as well. We humans are a sad lot, I'm afraid. Normally, I try to see the good in things, and right now I am stumped. It brings to mind the saying, "For evil to flourish, all that is needed is for good people to do nothing." Edmund Burke. I guess all of us who are horrified by this need to be more vigilant, more aware, more involved in our schools and better advocates for good communication all around. My heart goes out to the young teacher who got caught in what seems like a really sticky situation.
This article was obviously written by someone who is not a teacher. In my opinion, the voice of teachers should be heard along with all criticism against them. It is so easy to point a finger when you have never walked in a teacher's shoes. Teachers take abuse all the time from administrators, other teachers, parents and yes, believe it or not, students. Sometimes the parents with the highest expectations of teachers are inadequate or abusive parents themselves. As a teacher I have seen this time and again - the parents want someone who is "professional" to treat their children as they cannot.I am not a teacher in public education. I have children in public education. I have taught in public education as an invited in guest teacher. I am an advocate for teachers. However, the experience of teacher bullying exists. It exists within the structures of public education and private education. The abuse of power by a teacher does and can exist. Just as the abuse of a teacher by a student does and can exist. The abuse of a student upon another student does and can exist.
Just because a person went to school and got the piece of paper that says they can teach does not mean they are exempt from receiving or giving abuse in various forms. I have stood with teachers against their principal because of injustice. I have stood with a teacher face to face with a parent that actually physically threatened the teacher. I have also sat with a young man who was sexually abused by a male teacher. I have sat with another student who was in tears because their religious path was torn apart by a teacher to the point of placing the child as a point of ridicule and harassment from other students.
Do not judge someone unless you know the whole story. It is easy to do that when you hide behind anonymous black and white letters on the computer screen. I offer this to you, email me privately and share your side of the story in a magazine I co edit. I agree there are two sides (and sometimes three or four) to every story.
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