Bullying In School: Teacher Bullying

Teacher bullying is one aspect of school bullying that is often ignored when we examine the impact of bullying behavior on students. In our educational system, a teacher is looked upon by most students and parents as being a good role model, so what then happens to that image and what message is being sent to our children when we have teachers who bully?

"Do teachers bully"?  Yes, there are some teachers who do bully their students!  Unfortunately there does not appear to be much research or statistical information available, possibly due to the circumstances surrounding this type of bullying, as often it boils down to the word of a student verses the teacher. 

School principals are often reluctant to challenge classroom teachers on their classroom management techniques due to issue of teacher classroom autonomy, which sometimes may include the use of bullying techniques to maintain  classroom control, especially by teachers facing overcrowded classrooms and difficult teaching assignments.

A key point to remember here is that disciplining a student for inappropriate behavior in the classroom is NOT bullying, provided that the student is clearly guilty of breaking the established classroom or school rules.  So for example, if little Bugsy is choking his classmate, a teacher stepping in to stop this action, even if they have to physically remove Bugsy's hand from their classmate's throat, cannot be accused of bullying little Bugsy.

When looking at the many definitions for bullying, one key word often appears in most definitions.  This is the word "repeated" as in one of the definitions we looked at earlier: "Bullying is a conscious, willful, deliberate, hostile and repeated behavior by one or more people, which is intended to harm others." [www.Bullying.Org. "What is Bullying?" [Online] 17 February 2009.]

This one word or variations of, such as "repeatedly", is very important as it helps to set apart actions or comments that happen only once or very seldomly, or something said or done "in the heat of the moment", from an on-going cycle of verbal or physical abuse being done to a student by their teacher.

Returning again to the classroom, as a teacher myself, I know that over my 25 years of teaching there were instances where I know that I should have used different words or handled a situation with a student differently.  It may surprise some people, especially students, that teachers are humans too, and we make mistakes!  I feel the need to point out the fact once again, the spoken words or actions made towards a student in the midst of a problem, do not represent bullying behavior unless this has been happening repeatedly over a specific period of time.

So what does this mean to you and I, as parents?  When our child arrives home upset at their teacher for a remark made to them when acting inappropriately, it is not automatically an example of teacher bullying.  Now depending upon what the remark was, you may have reason to contact the teacher about what was said, for example I cannot see any justification for a teacher to be swearing at a student, but even the use of a swear word does not label the teacher as bullying the student.

As mentioned earlier, there are teachers who bully students, and these are the educators that the teaching profession needs to get rid of, and we as parents need to be aware of and take action against. 

How Do I Know If My Child Is Teacher Bullied?

What then are some indicators to look for if you feel that your child may be bullied by their teacher.  Some common behaviors may include:

• your child is always singled out as a trouble-maker by the teacher whenever there is a behavior problem in the classroom.
• your child is often made fun of by the teacher in front of the class through sarcastic comments, mimicking, and inappropriate comments
• your child is being continually forced to attain standards of work unrealistic to their academic ability through threats of failing or having to redo work repeatedly that is "not good enough".
• your child is being deliberately ignored by the teacher when displaying appropriate classroom behavior and needs help or has questions related to their school work.
• your child is being avoided or picked on by their peers due to the direct or indirect action of the teacher based on their dislike of your child (i.e. teacher is guilty of manipulating other students against your child due to their personality clashes.)
• your child is deliberately excluded from classroom events or activities by the teacher for no apparent reason.
• your child is getting low grades on assignments clearly based on the fact that there is a personality clash between them and the teacher (i.e. teacher is using poor grading to retaliate against your child.)

For many parents having to deal with a situation of bullying in school by another child is bad enough, but what is even worse is having to deal with a situation involving their child and a teacher. Dealing with teacher bullying requires some careful preplanning and the ability to behave in a non-confrontation manner to avoid making the situation even worse for the child.