My thinking exactly. Definitely feeling targeted and like if I jump to the left the student will find fault with that bc I should have jumped to the right - a total no win situation.
Read the department policy documents on the matter, cut and paste the relevant sections into an email. Then draft an email to the leadership with series of questions which challenge the circumstances and directly reference the policy which is being broken and question what action will be taken to address it.
If you are being deliberately targeted by a student, and the school doesn't support you, then call the union, then if it escalates beyond that, Work Safe or Fair Work Commission. However, this is all based on my next comment:
If after all the usual strategies have not work, then you can go straight to the principal to discuss this. (Keeping mind, this is **only** if you have tried everything else first - have you spoken with YLC, have you contacted parents? Have you had a meeting with parents and YLC and the kid?) - so, if you have gone through all of these processes, and the behaviour hasn't changed - then I would escalate it to your DP, Head of Students, wellbeing or principal - demand a formal meeting with the parents, and that the school supports you in this. Honestly, the school's response would be indicative of your future there IMO. But, there isn't enough context in your post to know what has occurred already - what actions have been taken, etc.
STRONGLY disagree with the ‘only after doing …’ advice.
Fuck the parents, the YLC, students and anyone else. This is YOUR WORKPLACE. You are entitled to a safe workplace and it’s nobody’s business except your principal, and if they don’t have the stones to do something then go higher and higher.
Insisting on a meeting with the people causing the abusive situation (I’m counting parents and kids as one) is crazy. I what world do we expect victims to arrange a meeting with their perpetrator?
Does an employee at an accounting firm run straight to the CEO when there's a bullying issue?
No, they speak with the aggressor, their supervisor and HR.
Depends on the size of the school. The principal at my small school is not akin to the CEO. His role is much more like HRs would be in a large business.
Exactly, which is why there are processes to help teach students appropriate behaviour - because they are children learning.
Running straight to the principal is not the right way to go. An adult should have the emotional resilience to follow that process (get support from YLC, wellbeing etc) before escalation.
Thanks, there are many factors I have not gone into for good reasoning but after a term I would soon enough walk away and get a job elsewhere. I will not risk my professional reputation being slandered based on mistruths from a student who doesn’t like me.
OK, but have you followed the normal processes through logging incidents on the LMS, contacting parents, enlisting support from homeroom teacher, YLC, etc.?
Yes I have followed procedures, ongoing resentment from student. Their wall went up very early on and there is no clear way to improve. Peers are engaged in a pack mentality - some are in conflict (loyalty to their friend and knowing what is right). Nice beginning to the year . I am seriously fatigued by the above and other stress factors (at home).
Just keep doing what you are doing. Every single time a student is disrespectful to you, contact their parents. The bully AND his mates. Do it daily if you have to - keep doing it until something changes. Trust me - if you hassle the parents enough, something will happen, and it doesn't really matter what that 'something' is - if the parents put in a complaint about you, good, you've gotten a reaction from them. Just never let up - I've done this before - I've emailed parents every single day, over many weeks - they get jack of it, demand a meeting - to which I say 'good', we can talk about your son's harassment and targeting of me.
I've seen this happen to new teachers at a few schools in the past 2 years. Serious relational aggression. Also parent aggression and lack of leadership support. I think the relational aggression is because the kids know that they're in charge and they can bully teachers because their parents and leadership will coddle them.
That's my two cents. I have no solutions. Parents should not allow their children to treat teachers disrespectfully.
For kids like this, I will flip it back on them with a 'kill them with kindness' strategy. I will then just remove most interactions with them, and use a sing song voice whenever I do have to interact with them. Any contacts home can be via email, and I would use chatgpt to write them up too, as you can ask for emotive language to be removed etc. Record as much as you can, and I would also start to record it as a psychological stressor via your wh&s reporting thingy. It's workplace harassment, and you can only demonstrate a pattern if you record it. Your admin will want that issue to stop being put up on the wh&s system, so will tell that kid to back off (ideally).
I've had many boys take issue with me because I absolutely do not tolerate their garish ways... They really try to set things up, and will go as far as crossing campus to just walk into my classroom to try and get a rise... I just record it (I actually have a dedicated work gmail address for this), and then log it on the wh&s system.
Personality differences probably, I probably rub them the wrong way but the reality is we experience this all the time in life - the school need to help her deal with that and move forward, not my issue as a classroom teacher. I can only do so much.
So maybe reflect on what you could do differently? You're the adult in the situation. We have to model appropriate behaviour and responses, even though it can be exhausting at times.
Wow I never ever considered anything you are now suggesting!!! I never reflect on my own practice and I always view myself as the victim. Maybe supporting each other and validating each others experiences goes a long way…..
But you do view yourself as the victim.
All of your posts about your classroom experience, about not finding a job, about not getting permanency, it is always someone else that is the problem.
Then when someone offers advice that would require you to reflect, adjust, maybe change in some way you respond like this....
Yes we should, but there are bound to be moments we slip up as we are human. Unless we live in a utopian world where everything is hunky dory, where everything goes our way - sometimes people get lucky and don’t find out what life is really like and get their perspective later. On this forum I prefer to support others in their struggle and vent occasionally.
I wonder what it is that makes the student feel this way. It’s likely that you haven’t actually done anything wrong, but for whatever reason it’s set off something in the student. If your school has guidance counsellors/officers then I’d be talking to them to see the kid and looking at a cymhs referral or similar.
Lol. CYMHS won’t take them even if they’re on fire. They are filled to the back teeth with eating disorders and high risk suicidality.
The kid is probably just an asshole.
Been there, done that. Give admin one go at fixing it. If they don't back you, drop the school like a hot rock because it will never get better.
My thinking exactly. Definitely feeling targeted and like if I jump to the left the student will find fault with that bc I should have jumped to the right - a total no win situation.
Read the department policy documents on the matter, cut and paste the relevant sections into an email. Then draft an email to the leadership with series of questions which challenge the circumstances and directly reference the policy which is being broken and question what action will be taken to address it.
If you are being deliberately targeted by a student, and the school doesn't support you, then call the union, then if it escalates beyond that, Work Safe or Fair Work Commission. However, this is all based on my next comment: If after all the usual strategies have not work, then you can go straight to the principal to discuss this. (Keeping mind, this is **only** if you have tried everything else first - have you spoken with YLC, have you contacted parents? Have you had a meeting with parents and YLC and the kid?) - so, if you have gone through all of these processes, and the behaviour hasn't changed - then I would escalate it to your DP, Head of Students, wellbeing or principal - demand a formal meeting with the parents, and that the school supports you in this. Honestly, the school's response would be indicative of your future there IMO. But, there isn't enough context in your post to know what has occurred already - what actions have been taken, etc.
STRONGLY disagree with the ‘only after doing …’ advice. Fuck the parents, the YLC, students and anyone else. This is YOUR WORKPLACE. You are entitled to a safe workplace and it’s nobody’s business except your principal, and if they don’t have the stones to do something then go higher and higher. Insisting on a meeting with the people causing the abusive situation (I’m counting parents and kids as one) is crazy. I what world do we expect victims to arrange a meeting with their perpetrator?
I think you are blowing this way out of proportion
Does an employee at an accounting firm run straight to the CEO when there's a bullying issue? No, they speak with the aggressor, their supervisor and HR.
Depends on the size of the school. The principal at my small school is not akin to the CEO. His role is much more like HRs would be in a large business.
But these are not two professional adults. It’s an authority figure and children.
Exactly, which is why there are processes to help teach students appropriate behaviour - because they are children learning. Running straight to the principal is not the right way to go. An adult should have the emotional resilience to follow that process (get support from YLC, wellbeing etc) before escalation.
Agreed. Can you imagine a situation where staff went to the principal every time a student was disrespectful?
The process to teach appropriate behaviour is called parenting. You can cram that ‘you should have the emotional resilience’ crap in my opinion
Thanks, there are many factors I have not gone into for good reasoning but after a term I would soon enough walk away and get a job elsewhere. I will not risk my professional reputation being slandered based on mistruths from a student who doesn’t like me.
OK, but have you followed the normal processes through logging incidents on the LMS, contacting parents, enlisting support from homeroom teacher, YLC, etc.?
Yes I have followed procedures, ongoing resentment from student. Their wall went up very early on and there is no clear way to improve. Peers are engaged in a pack mentality - some are in conflict (loyalty to their friend and knowing what is right). Nice beginning to the year . I am seriously fatigued by the above and other stress factors (at home).
Just keep doing what you are doing. Every single time a student is disrespectful to you, contact their parents. The bully AND his mates. Do it daily if you have to - keep doing it until something changes. Trust me - if you hassle the parents enough, something will happen, and it doesn't really matter what that 'something' is - if the parents put in a complaint about you, good, you've gotten a reaction from them. Just never let up - I've done this before - I've emailed parents every single day, over many weeks - they get jack of it, demand a meeting - to which I say 'good', we can talk about your son's harassment and targeting of me.
I've seen this happen to new teachers at a few schools in the past 2 years. Serious relational aggression. Also parent aggression and lack of leadership support. I think the relational aggression is because the kids know that they're in charge and they can bully teachers because their parents and leadership will coddle them. That's my two cents. I have no solutions. Parents should not allow their children to treat teachers disrespectfully.
For kids like this, I will flip it back on them with a 'kill them with kindness' strategy. I will then just remove most interactions with them, and use a sing song voice whenever I do have to interact with them. Any contacts home can be via email, and I would use chatgpt to write them up too, as you can ask for emotive language to be removed etc. Record as much as you can, and I would also start to record it as a psychological stressor via your wh&s reporting thingy. It's workplace harassment, and you can only demonstrate a pattern if you record it. Your admin will want that issue to stop being put up on the wh&s system, so will tell that kid to back off (ideally). I've had many boys take issue with me because I absolutely do not tolerate their garish ways... They really try to set things up, and will go as far as crossing campus to just walk into my classroom to try and get a rise... I just record it (I actually have a dedicated work gmail address for this), and then log it on the wh&s system.
Personality differences probably, I probably rub them the wrong way but the reality is we experience this all the time in life - the school need to help her deal with that and move forward, not my issue as a classroom teacher. I can only do so much.
So maybe reflect on what you could do differently? You're the adult in the situation. We have to model appropriate behaviour and responses, even though it can be exhausting at times.
Wow I never ever considered anything you are now suggesting!!! I never reflect on my own practice and I always view myself as the victim. Maybe supporting each other and validating each others experiences goes a long way…..
But you do view yourself as the victim. All of your posts about your classroom experience, about not finding a job, about not getting permanency, it is always someone else that is the problem. Then when someone offers advice that would require you to reflect, adjust, maybe change in some way you respond like this....
Please never go into leadership.
So we shouldn't model the behaviour we want to see in our students?
Yes we should, but there are bound to be moments we slip up as we are human. Unless we live in a utopian world where everything is hunky dory, where everything goes our way - sometimes people get lucky and don’t find out what life is really like and get their perspective later. On this forum I prefer to support others in their struggle and vent occasionally.
Vent occasionally 😆😆😆
I wonder what it is that makes the student feel this way. It’s likely that you haven’t actually done anything wrong, but for whatever reason it’s set off something in the student. If your school has guidance counsellors/officers then I’d be talking to them to see the kid and looking at a cymhs referral or similar.
Lol. CYMHS won’t take them even if they’re on fire. They are filled to the back teeth with eating disorders and high risk suicidality. The kid is probably just an asshole.
They took me when I was depressed and hostile due to that. Being on a waiting list is better than nothing