School Officials Helpful in Cases of Teacher Bullying

Many students who start the school year look forward to learning new things but what happens when a student and teacher do not get along?

What action can you take as a parent if your child comes home telling stories about a teacher who seems to not like them?

“Typically what would happen is in what you call a personality conflict or a disagreement over how they relate to each or whatever it is, we always try to start with the teacher and the parent and when appropriate the student sitting down and having a conversation together,” said Interim Brian Dolan.  “Most difficulties, and I give credit to both our teachers and our parents for this, and for older students who participate in this…most of the difficulties that happen between people in our schools here resolve by people sitting down and having a good conversation.”

He added parents meeting with the teacher is the first step and if the issue remains unresolved, the parents would then meet with the principal or assistant principal and try to come to an understanding of what’s going on and try to correct whatever isn’t working.

“Sometimes we will make a schedule change from one class to another because things just are not working out and we’ve made our best effort to improve the situation,” he said.

But how do you tell if your child may be involved in a situation where there is a problem in the classroom?

According to A-better-child.org, signs to watch for include headaches, stomach aches and nightmares. Other signs include loss of interest in school, negative behavior, a resistance to attending school, self-depreciating remarks, complaints of being picked on by the teacher, complaints of being constantly yelled at, complaints of being humiliated by the teacher, complaints of the teacher being rude, making sarcastic remarks or being disrespectful.

Information on the Website includes ways in which a parent can deal with alleged bullying that include keeping notes of meetings and results, never ignoring an instance of bullying, listen to the teacher’s side of the story, remain calm, keep an open mind and schedule a meeting.

In an article published for Web MD, Stuart Twemlow, MD, a psychiatrist who directs the Peaceful Schools and Communities Project at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, conducted a survey of 116 teachers at seven elementary schools. In that survey, 45 percent admitted to bullying students.

He also points out although there are those teachers who bully, the majority are hardworking and care about their students.

Principal John Barsotti says that there are always two sides to every situation.

“In this case with it being a student and a teacher,” Barsotti said. “It’s probably best for the family to contact the teacher directly and try to resolve it. In that way the family gets both sides of the story in the beginning.”

He added most of the time, the problem gets resolved at that level.

“That‘s really a good way to have a first step towards a solution,” Barsotti said.

Dolan agrees.

“There’s a learning experience for everybody involved, our kids, our teachers and parents to say, ‘Let’s try to work through this,’ instead of saying, ‘We’re having a difficult time so we’re going to change the schedule right away.’” Dolan said. “It can be difficult to get those schedule changes in place sometimes. We generally try to solve the problem and we are generally successful.”

Does your child have a problem with other students bullying him or her? See this story. 

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