The Classroom Bully - One Man's Opinion

Once upon a time, there were two, recently-turned-high-school-aged, girls. Their parents had taught them a love of learning and a respect for teachers and the learning process. They were looking forward to beginning their high school career at one of the newer high schools in Hillsborough County. If this was a true fairy tale, everyone would live happily ever after, but this was real life and their respect for one particular teacher and her learning methods would be sorely tested throughout the school year.

It is so ironic that, in a school that espoused “zero tolerance for bullying” both girls were subjected to just that, not on the way to school or at lunch time but in the classroom and not from fellow students but from a dysfunctional, cowardly bully of a teacher who used her authority to intimidate, harangue and emotionally abuse her students at every opportunity.  

This abuse included profane language, yelling and other actions inappropriate for a class room environment. Both girls soon refused to raise their hands for fear of incurring the bully’s wrath. The younger of the two girls, an “a” student in all other classes, actually became physically ill and was placed under the care of a specialist as a result of the emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of this supposed excuse for a teacher.

A typical example of her lack of concern for her students was a remark that she made in class about not having the students’ parents e-mail her because it wasn’t her fault if their children didn’t apply themselves. What kind of a teacher is this? Instead of supporting her students, she constantly told them that they were going to fail. How’s that for positive reinforcement for impressionable kids?

When the mother of the girls told them that she would go to school to meet with the teacher, they both begged her not to so that they would not be subject to the teacher’s retaliation in class. Since there were only a few weeks to the end of the school year, their mother reluctantly agreed.

During an unrelated meeting with a counselor about her older daughter, the mother mentioned what had been happening with both of her daughters in the bully’s class. The counselor excused her behavior because of the new regulations, expedited curriculm, to teach a massive amount of information very quickly. Strike one!

When another incident was too much to ignore, the mother e-mailed the school administration about the situation. A return phone call assured her that it would be investigated. During the investigation, the teacher denied all of the charges. The school’s solution was to assure the mother that her children would never be placed in that teacher’s class for the remainder of the time they attended that school. Strike two! The administration apparently “circled the wagons” to protect one of their own. What about the next class and the following year and the year after that? Who is going to protect those students?

The effects of this bullying are poignantly expressed in this excerpt from an e-mail that the mother had sent to school officials. “Initially, I gave Ms. X the benefit of the doubt. But eventually I realized, that she was not just one of those teachers who you don’t really like, but you deal with; she was genuinely a bully to her students. She was out to make her students feel like, no matter what they did, they would fail. You cannot imagine how many times both of my girls came home and spoke those words. "She said that it is our fault if we fail her class because we don’t apply ourselves." And that is what my younger daughter was told after trying to ask Ms. X to explain a certain portion of the review packet. " I don’t have time for that right now. That is your responsibility" Seriously? How is that teaching??

A form was sent home to file a formal complaint against the teacher in question at the end of the year. Note to Hillsborough County School officials: At the request of the parents, I have named neither the student nor the school but that may soon change. Unless something besides lip service is paid to this unjust situation, my next blog will name names, places and specific events. I will contact parents of other students in that class to confirm the teacher’s actions.  

The class room is no place for a bully, especially when that bully is a teacher. I think this warrants further investigation. That’s what I think, but, then again, that’s just one man’s opinion. What do you think?