Bullied by Teachers

In this post I'd like to talk about an issue which is rarely spoken about - Teachers who bully students. I'd hazard a guess that most teachers could mention a teacher or two whom they have worked with who they believed at some stage during their careers have bullied students. I'm somewhat hesitant to write this post, since I understand that it seems to be quietly considered taboo. However, this isn't an attack on all teachers, any more than a post about student bullies is an attack on all students. Furthermore, I think it is important to bring this taboo subject out into the open and discuss what we as teachers, as well as other school staff, parents and friends of bullied students, and the bullied student themselves can do if they encounter this situation.

If you've read my earlier posts, you might notice me talking about times when I was bullied by teachers at school. The effect those teachers had on my life was enormous, probably more than all of my other teachers combined. From the age of 8 I learnt self-loathing and met that proverbial little voice in the back of your head who tells you that you're worthless, not capable of doing or achieving anything.

One article I recently stumbled upon was this one by Jessica Kelmon:

http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/bullying/5063-when-the-teacher-is-the-bully.gs?page=all

The story about the 4th grader is extraordinarily similar to what happened to me as a 3rd grader, all the way down to the principal and teacher suggesting I need medication!

Maybe some might argue that there isn't a problem and that the number of cases of teacher bullies is so low as to be almost negligible. However in a study by Twemlow et al in 2006 (p. 194), they found that 45% of elementary school teachers surveyed admitted to having bullied students, interestingly they also found that some teachers were angry to have been asked the question in the first place. Another study, by Terry (1998) as stated in Twemlow (2006 p.194), states that the figure was over 50% when they surveyed only high school teachers.

We can't sweep this under the carpet and hope it will go away. We need to tackle this head on and work to find the root of the problem. We also need to be open about the problem so that the victims do not go unnoticed and hopefully reduce the number of incidences.

Another concerning statistic from the Twemlow paper was that nearly 16% of respondents stated that their school "had no written procedure for handling 'problem teachers'" and over 76% reported that they did not know if their school had a written procedure for handling this issue. So only 8% of teachers had a documented procedure to follow to help protect the students whom they felt may have been in danger of being bullied by a teacher. - That's scary!

We teachers all need to find out if our school has a written procedure for dealing with this issue. If there is no procedure, we need to start putting forward an argument to get one put in place. If one is in place, we need to make sure that all staff members are aware of the procedure.

The effects of teacher bullying can be enormous, and can result in students hating school, developing mental health issues, dropping out of school etc. As the greatschools article by Jessica Kelmon (mentioned above) points out, - "This is a battle children cannot fight". We as teachers, parents and adults need to stand up and do what is right for these kids. This is as true for young children as it is for the teens.

References:
Twemlow, S.W; Fonagy, P; Sacco, F.C; Brethour Jr, J.R; "Teachers Who Bully Students: A Hidden Trauma", 2006, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 52(3): 187-198. DOI: 10.1177/0020764006067234

Further reading:

McEvoy, Alan. "Teachers who bully students: Patterns and policy implications." Teachers who bully students. Presentation to the Conference on Persistently Safe Schools–Philadelphia (September 11–14. 2005). 2005.

 

Whitted, Kathryn S., and David R. Dupper. "Do teachers bully students? Findings from a survey of students in an alternative education setting." Education and Urban Society 40.3 (2008): 329-341.