When I was a little girl I remember hearing a public service announcement on the radio, “if you or someone you know is being abused, please call…”. I might have been 9 or 10 years old but that made a big impact. It felt like power to protect myself or others – I had someone to call. In general, children have very little power. They must do whatever the adults around them tell them to do. This lack of power exists at home and at school. Children are at the whim of adults, expected to trust that their best interests are being considered. Parents send their children to school and trust that the adults caring for their children deserve that trust.

There has been a lot of attention to the issue of bullying over the past decade. The rhetoric surrounding bullying is focused on child-to-child bullying. We teach students social skills, about what it means to be a bystander, and how to stand up for their rights. However, what do students do when the bully is an adult? There exists a problem of bullying in schools that is perpetrated by teachers. Teacher bullying raises a few important issues, the protection of children, supporting adaptive coping in teachers, and honoring schools as a physically and emotionally safe space for everyone who spends time in them. I truly believe that the large majority of teachers are not bullies and do not use these maladaptive tactics. But, even the few who do need our support to learn better skills — or, they need to go.

So, what constitutes being a bully? Bullying includes name calling or teasing (verbal), intentionally leaving others out of activities (social), hitting or other intentional physical harm (physical). Many action that teachers consider to be “discipline” can be considered bullying. If one particular student called out constantly or if students in the classroom are used as negative examples, it could be considered verbal bullying. When a teacher decides that one student can’t participate in recess, a special, or the “pizza party” they are being socially ostracized. And, although it seems obvious that physical punishment should not be used, frustrated teachers may choose to physically push, pull, or otherwise move a student. To be sure, many of the actions that are accepted as discipline need to be looked at more closely.

An important consideration is to understand why this happens. Bullies are trying to fulfill some kind of need with their bullying.  Often, bullying provides the bully a sense of power and control. One must wonder if teachers are feeling so powerless in their jobs or personal lives that in order to fill this need they enact violence on children.

These abusive disciplinary tactics become an accepted part of some teachers’ repertoire because they are not told that it is inappropriate. What’s worse, in low-resource communities dominated by Black and Latino students there is an assumption that it is culturally appropriate to discipline harshly. I’ve heard teachers say, “this is all they [students] understand”. Then, of course, we punish children for using these same strategies.

When I was a little girl I felt validated by hearing on the radio that hitting was wrong and that I could call someone for help. That message let me know that even if someone told me I deserved to be hit or ridiculed, it was not OK. Children today need adults to stand up for their rights. They need adults to support one another’s ability to cope with stress and feelings of powerlessness in adaptive ways that do not include the verbal, social, or physical abuse of children.