Teacher abuse

School teachers are commonly the subject of bullying but they are also sometimes the originators of bullying within a school environment. When an adult bullies a child, it is referred to as psychological, emotional or verbal abuse. According to the American Psychological Association, it is as harmful as sexual or physical abuse. "Children who are emotionally abused and neglected face similar and sometimes worse mental health problems as children who are physically or sexually abused, yet psychological abuse is rarely addressed in prevention programs or in treating victims, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association."

While sexual and physical abuse by an adult to child, parent, teacher or coach is criminal in the eyes of the law, bullying or emotional abuse by these adults in care-giver positions is not necessarily.

Due to their influential role, it is possible that teachers are instrumental in teaching bullying. At present there is little to no research to confirm this.

While teacher bullying is recognized as serious and harmful, there are no statistics. However, according to one article, a high-percentage of teachers admit to bullying students.

Comprehensive research carried out in the UK found that teaching was one of the occupations at highest risk from bullying:

In another survey, the Economic and Social Research Institute found bullying to be more prevalent in schools (13.8pc) than other workplaces (7.9pc).

There are complex issues with reporting bullying by teachers, not only for children, but also parents. By means of their position of power over the child, power that enables them to impact the child's present and future, children and parents are reluctant to report. There are specific signs that parents should watch for as their child is unlikely to disclose that the teacher is in fact the bully.

Furthermore, a teacher who bullies may present as a Jekyll and Hyde figure: they are often celebrated and popular so their abuse can go on for long periods of time undetected. Lacking research on teachers in classrooms, once again it is hard to be sure, but certainly in teaching a sport, we see adults often rewarded for bullying conduct that would never be tolerated or condoned if done by a child.

In a school setting, this is true for teachers in the classroom as well as in their role as coaches of school sports.

Parsons identifies teacher bullying as often being part of a wider bullying culture within a school, with a complex web of dynamics such as:

...
Wikipedia