When Teachers are Bullies

We all know bullying is a problem in schools, but from a teacher? It sounds crazy, but teacher-bullies have recently been in the news quite a bit. Bullying students is awful enough, but in two of these cases the harassment was directed toward high school special education students. A special education teacher bullying students. Wow. Just…wow.

In New Jersey, a 15-year-old student used his cell phone to record the teacher when nobody, not even his parents, believed he was being bullied. The video shows the special education teacher threatening the student, using profanity and speaking to the student in a degrading fashion. When confronted by the student’s father, the teacher said this was his way of motivating his students. Taking a page from the “too little too late” manual, he eventually did apologize. .

A 14-year-old special needs student in Ohio has a very similar story. When school administrators did not believe the teacher was bullying the student, her father went all “Law and Order” on them. He had her wear a “wire” to school hidden under her clothing and, wouldn’t ya know it, the teacher and the teacher’s aide were caught making “a series of abusive and cutting remarks.” The aide was fired and the teacher was placed on an unpaid suspension. The mother of the bullied student was paid $300,000 by the school district to settle the lawsuit she initiated.

The latest story of teacher-bullying comes from a middle school in Tennessee. A first-year math teacher, in response to a question from an eighth-grade student, wrote “stupid” on the student’s forehead with a Sharpie. Not only did he write “stupid” on the kid’s forehead, the teacher wrote it backwards so the student could read it in a mirror, which I would find pretty impressive under different circumstances. The teacher said he meant it as a joke. District officials were not amused.

What is important to keep in mind is these are isolated incidents, not common practice among educators, which is why it’s news. Although I find the harassment of these students reprehensible, the idea of secretly filming teachers is very disturbing.

I shudder to think of how many parents out there read about these cases and thought, “What a great idea!” The argument could be made if a teacher has nothing to hide, it should not be an issue. True, but it opens up a whole can of icky worms. What if a kid doesn’t like a teacher because he received a poor grade? A little filming, a little editing and voila! Goodbye teacher!

Plus, it is a very short hop from secretly filming a teacher to secretly filming parents. Have you said or done something lately that might keep you from being nominated for Parent of the Year? Check YouTube, you may have gone viral.