When The Teacher Is Bullied
At present, bullying between students is an issue that worries the whole of society. But what happens when the teacher is bullied ? Well, there must be measures on the part of the school institution designed to protect both students and teachers from being victims and suffering from bullying.
The problem of bullying
Eradicating bullying from schools is a real challenge at an educational and social level. It is a complex problem to tackle and that responds to multiple causes and social, educational and cultural factors.
The translation of the term bullying from English to Spanish is ‘bully’, and refers to harassment, harassment, intimidation or psychological, verbal or physical abuse, produced between students or from students to teachers.
The bullying involves causing suffering to people who are harassed through behaviors such offenses, humiliation, name – calling, insults and blows. Situations that can be prolonged in time and occur not only at school, but also outside of it and through social networks.
Thus, both students and teachers who unfortunately experience bullying situations, can see their lives greatly affected, both personally and psychologically as well as socially. Thus, living in bullying situations can be expressed in anxiety problems, poor academic performance, social isolation and depression.
When is the teacher who suffers bullying
When students exceed the limits established in the treatment of an educator, they speak of a situation of harassment of a teacher. C hen a teacher suffers bullying, he loses authority over the whole class and have to put up one or more students who interrupt, tease or taunt him and even though it is not the most common, can become physically assault him.
Therefore, in a case of harassment of a teacher by one or more students, the school institution must act immediately and take the corresponding measures and necessary decisions, according to the seriousness of the situation.
Measures to be taken when the teacher suffers bullying
Both the management team of the institution and the professor who suffers the harassment situation should intervene and act as follows:
- Gather information and document it. To know in depth the seriousness of the situation, it is important to identify and describe the events, since when they occurred, in what way, where and who are the people involved.
- Talk to the student (s) involved in harassing the teacher. Both directors of the institution, other professionals or the same teacher who suffers harassment, if they feel safe, could talk with the harassing student. It can be useful to confront and know his version and try to identify the causes that cause him to behave in such a way. In some cases, students reconsider and are able to apologize.
- Notify families. The corresponding communication channels must be established to inform the families of the bullying students about the situation. Except for very serious cases of bullying of a teacher in which extreme measures are necessary, such as expulsion, it will always be better to try to establish corrective, educational and social strategies with both the student and the family.
- Implement action and intervention protocols. Protocols established by the different autonomous communities in relation to cases of bullying, child abuse, gender violence in education or attacks on teachers and staff of schools.
- Inform unions, such as the Central Sindical Independiente y de Servants (CSIF), that they report and help school institutions and their officials, managers, professors and teachers who suffer harassment.
The importance of prevention to avoid bullying of teachers
The school institution has the responsibility of guaranteeing the good coexistence of all students and teachers and ensuring their safety and well-being. If necessary, the school should have professionals, psychologists, therapists and lawyers capable of intervening to solve bullying situations. Thus, the school has to work together with the families.
However, the fundamental thing in schools is the prevention of bullying in all its forms. To do this, content and methodologies must be aligned to deal with the issue of bullying in a transversal way in all subjects. This implies at the level of practice that educators implement teaching-learning situations in which the objective is the promotion of values and emotional education.
In this sense, when a teacher suffers bullying caused by one or more students, it is important to achieve intervention by the rest of the students, who have to manifest denunciation behaviors towards harassing behaviors and empathic behaviors with the harassed teacher. For this, an education, from an early age, based on respect for authority and individual differences is essential.
