Subscribe to our Mailing List

Get the news right in your inbox!

Physical Intimidation

March 9, 2016 in In the Classroom - 7 Comments

Physical Intimidation

March 9, 2016 in In the Classroom - 7 Comments

Today I spend a period locked away in the staff room crying.

I have never felt so belittled, intimidated, and unsafe as I did on break duty today.

It started out relatively normally – wandering around outside the dining hall, talking to some students, asking others to pick up their rubbish, the usual stuff.

Then I see one of my own year 8’s kick a piece of burger across the ground.

This student had played up in our lesson just before lunch, earning himself two bad behaviour logs. I debated with myself whether to confront his current behaviour, then decided that if I didn’t I may as well have not confronted what he did in class.

Over I walk, putting on my friendly, joking teacher face, and ask him to pick up the food and put it in the bin. Realising that he would straight away complain about it being dirty, I offered him a napkin.

Of course he refused. We start the cat-and-mouse game of ‘It’s not mine, why do I have to pick it up?’ and ‘I don’t care whose it is, you kicked it so you put it in the bin’. This is a very usual conversation for this situation, one I’ve had many many times. Most of the time the student grumbles, complains, then complies.

This time was different.

He continues arguing with me about it, all the while I’m trying to explain that he’s turning it into a bigger deal than it needs to be. One of his friends pipes up, saying that he didn’t kick it, so he shouldn’t have to pick it up. I explain, patiently and for what felt like the thousandth time, that I saw him kick it and I’m asking him to pick it up, as I would any other student.

I then ask the kicker if he is refusing to follow an instruction (key behaviour words at our school that basically mean shit’s about to hit the fan if you don’t get on with what I’m saying). He stands there, looks me in the eye, and says ‘Yes’. I tell him that this will now be another behaviour log and it will be escalated.

 

That’s when it all crumbled.

 

All of a sudden I have a group of year 8 and 9 boys completely surrounding me, yelling at me all sorts of things about how he shouldn’t have to pick it up, that’s what cleaners are for, etc, getting extremely worked up and morphing into a mob mentality.

I look for a physical way out of the situation and cannot find one. These 10-15 boys, many of them taller than me (and I’m 173cm!) have formed two full circles around me, every one of them with something to say. Since I can’t physically get away from the situation, I try to stay cool and respond to what they’re saying. I explain again the situation, which of course is as helpful as nothing. One of the boys in particular gets quite aggressive toward me, so I inform him that I would be logging him as well if he can’t keep out of it as it had nothing to do with him.

Then they all start saying that I can’t log them when I don’t know their names, and they start yelling out random names.

At this point I’m panicking, having no idea what to do or how to get myself out of the situation.

Thankfully the bell goes, and the boys dissipate fairly quickly.

 

I all but ran back up to the staffroom, trying not to burst into tears on the way, dodging glances from students and staff alike.

I then spent the whole of my free period (one of 3 for the week) trying to get myself together so that I’d be able to teach my classes in the afternoon.

I can tell you right now it was so difficult to not just get up and walk out completely. I’ve never been in a situation like that in my life, and I never want to again. Some of the boys in that group are in my classes, and I’ll have to face them again in the coming days. I don’t know how to act toward them. We are constantly told to ‘forgive and forget’, ‘give them the benefit of the doubt’, ‘treat each lesson as a whole new beginning’, but I honestly don’t know if I can do that. I shouldn’t have to do that. I don’t know of any other profession where you have to face the same people every day who act like that toward you.

I spent some of my crying time looking through pictures of all the students in year 8 and 9, trying to pin some of them down. I was able to get 5 out of the group, and emailed the KS3 pastoral team, who assured me ‘we are on to them’.

So far all I know is that they were removed from classes for the day and put into internal seclusion, where the original offender made a comment about how I should return to my own country.

I will be following this up with the school again tomorrow.

7 Comments

  • changetoday March 9, 2016 at 5:58 pm

    I am sorry to say that I have done the exact same thing. I was just standing and a random teacher appeared . I complied and picked it up. But while we were leaving , I shouted “bitch” at the top of my lungs and ran away. Its a child’s mentality ma’am. They will realize their mistake one day.Please don’t feel sad about it. Student’s take this as a threat to their popularity, fearing they will be labelled ‘uncool’. Why not try another tactic? By telling them to pick it up or they’ll be suspended? Please don’t cry .. you are a brave person 🙂

    • sciteaching March 9, 2016 at 9:29 pm

      Thank you 🙂
      I hope one day they do realise how unacceptable their behaviour is – they are usually relatively nice boys, with the occasional behaviour issue. It just seemed like today they were all out for blood, even though to them I’m sure it just seemed like they were sticking up for their mate.

      • changetoday March 9, 2016 at 9:35 pm

        They were just doing it for creating a scene… believe me. Students are like that. Please don’t fret over silly student’s ma’am 🙂 Take care

  • tarajcull March 9, 2016 at 6:01 pm

    That sounds horrible. I definitely agree. You should not have to deal with that. It’s not fair. Good on you for emailing pastoral and doing something about it. Teaching is stressful enough as it is.

    • sciteaching March 9, 2016 at 9:34 pm

      Stressful is definitely the word for it!

  • Sarah March 9, 2016 at 6:38 pm

    I am sorry this has happened to you and spoilt your day. I have worked with students in challenging schools before and a big learning advice given to me was to ‘choose your battles wisely’. This student threw a piece of cheese and as the mouse you followed and did exactly what he wanted. He walked away confident and cocky knowing he would have upset you. It is low-life tactics, but they know no better. My advice is to document how this event made you feel (as you have done), speak to you head, and call the child’s parents (when you’ve cooled down) in a non-confronting way to discuss the incident and the consequences of his actions. Make sure the school follow this up, it’s not fair for you to feel this way. I hope it all gets resolved fairly. All the best.

    • sciteaching March 9, 2016 at 9:32 pm

      Unfortunately we had already butted heads during the lesson before break. To be honest he didn’t even know I was on break duty until I approached him – I don’t even know if he kicked the food intentionally.
      The point of it is though his behaviour was unacceptable to begin with, and if he knew I’d chosen to not engage in that battle, dealing with him in future would be all the more difficult. They are very quick to pick up on which teachers are lenient, and take advantage of that as much as they can.
      I hope it is resolved quickly and fairly too! I hate feeling this way, and I know the students don’t actually enjoy being in trouble.

    Join the Conversation

    Subscribe

    * indicates required

    Join us on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest posts

    Instagram

    Latest Posts

    ×
    %d bloggers like this: