Anyone had to deal with a bullying teacher?

[meshuggeneh]

What did you do?
DD broke down crying last night and told me about how her teacher singles her out, humiliates her in front of the class, mocks her, is sarcastic to her and insults her.
I totally believe her. What she's said and described sounds authentic and consistent with what I know about her and what I've seen. She's always liked school and her teachers and her teachers have always liked her (to varying degrees). She doesn't like this subject and she can't wait to drop it but she got on fine with her teacher last year, this year a new teacher came on the scene. At parents' evening, she had been animated and engaged with all her teachers until this one. He basically lectured her and she looked totally deflated, just sat there looking down. I knew she didn't like him or the subject (she had complained previously that he was a bit of an arsehole) and got that he didn't like her but didn't think more of it until now.
DD isn't overly sensitive, she's quite robust and also tends to keep problems to herself. If it had been a one-off event, she'd have let it slide. And she wouldn't be getting upset if it wasn't blatant. She's never ever had any problems with her teachers, never had any complaints on behaviour. She's quite confident and takes part enthusiastically in most classes and she will also (usually ) stand up for herself, she's not shy but she will also never cross the line into rudeness, she has never been in trouble for that and her behavour and attitude is always reported as good to excellent by her teachers.

I'd be interested if anyone has had to deal with teacher bullying at school, what action you took and what action the school took?

Thanks!

Definitely speak to the school. My DD went through something similar last term & the next day she was moved sets away from that teacher. He then left because of other complaints he'd had and the children hating him!

My DS was bullied by a teacher, he started having really odd nightmares, wetting the bed acting strangely, I was concerned it was a fever or something even went to the GP as it was a really big change in personality (he was 9)

I spoke to a good friend about our issues at home and they told me a few of the children had mentioned one teacher was yelling in his face, making him stand at front, and basically humiliating every single lesson. Called him stupid and dumb.

I then spoke to a few other parents who confirmed their children had also voiced concern.

So I walked in on a Tuesday morning straight to her class and asked to talk to her privately and immediately, she tried to brush me off but eventually realised I wasn't going anywhere.

I asked her what issue she had and called her out and her defence was "he's away with the fairies" and doesn't listen.

The next day she took my son into a room and asked him why he'd been so silly and told lies.. and threatened him.

I didn't waste time, I moved him from the school within 2 weeks and she was fired.

It was a slow drawn out process and it transpired over the course of the process it wasn't the first time.

My daughter a highly confident and intelligent academic girl mentioned one day in tears about the bullying by the PE solely at her. She had tried to deescalate it for 6 months before telling me. She explained that during tennis the teacher had made everyone stop and then she played shots as my ‘daughter did’ with limbs everywhere and no coordination. I should mention at this point my daughter is physically disabled but still plays tennis, swimming, running and stuff to the best of her ability with no moaning. She then repeatedly referred to any lack of ability, missed shots or whatever as ‘oh you’ve done a camilla’ etc after my daughter. She laughed at her running and said she needed to film it for YouTube.
I emailed the Head that evening and wrote down everything that had been said by her. By 9am the Head rang me and asked me to go in and meet her with my daughter. Daughter came out of lessons. Head spoke to other pupils in the lessons - it was all true. She (the Head) was absolutely fuming. It was May and the teacher just disappeared and never came back. I had further meetings with the head of PE who put her with him for her remaining time at the school.
bullying can and does happen

I’d email the school - the head of year and ask for a meeting to express your concerns - use the terms safeguarding, mental health and positive relationships in a subject. Teachers are human - some are good and some aren’t.

When I was at school we had an oaf for a teacher. Mr. B used to sit in his chair with his feet on the desk, acting the big man by making personal remarks about whichever of us caught his eye. One day one of the girls was late in and as she walked to her desk he
called out remarks about the wiggle when she walked and other inappropriate comments. She burst into tears and ran out of the room. Along the corridor she ran into the senior teacher,Miss A, in charge of the girls. Miss A took her away and got the whole story from her.
When the bell rang for changing classes Miss A waited till the room was cleared then got Into Mr.D. He was a rugby hulk and she was about 5 foot 2 in her high heels but we could hear her laying into him.
It was almost the end of the summer term.and he left quite suddenly. Miss A was very keen on decorum.

My ds is autistic and had this with a one teacher whose subject was PE

He shouted at him and my ds flinched thinking he was going to hit him

When I complained the head thought a meeting between me and him was a good idea at which he called "a little woman " to my face .

I invoked the complaint procedure and my ds never went to his class again .

I think you should let your daughter know that it is ok for you to get involved and advocate for her in this instance and speak to the Head of Year. She might want to handle it herself but this is a grown arse man picking on a child and the risk is that if has notice that he is about to get in trouble before you speak to his superiors, he might try and wriggle out of it. He is already gaslighting her by saying that his bullying is trying to help her. There was a bullying incident in my DDs class and she came home really upset but didn’t want me to get involved but she was happy for me to email the Head and let them know that DD wanted to speak to them about an upsetting incident. This gives her the opportunity to handle things but also lets the school know that you have her back so to speak.

Nothing was done at high school because it was teachers' prerogative to be obnoxious in the '70s. It didn't occur to me to complain to anyone about the arsehole phys ed, woodwork and home eco teachers, because what principal or deputy principal would pay any attention to a girl complaining about them?

Only bullying teacher that anything was done about ever was my grade one teacher, who picked on me for wearing trousers and said little girls should wear skirts over them because they'd get the trousers dirty. (Why this didn't apply to little boys was never mentioned - I suppose getting dirty was acceptable for them.) My mum came to the school and tore a strip off her, telling her she wasn't doubling her washing because of such a stupid idea.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I was bullied relentlessly aged 12 by a teacher for absolutely no reason and the school's solution was to simply remove me from the classroom when she did her lessons. I had to sit in another class and do work by myself, as if I was the problem.

This teacher sounds like a vile bully. I hope you & your DD have now got this sorted OP.

We had a rogue teacher who would bully one pupil in particular. He was a nasty, calculating sort.

It got particularly bad when on a school camping trip to Wales in the 1970s. For some reason the teacher did not travel in the minibuses, but drove his white Renault 4 to the site we stayed at. Every night he would drive to the next village pub to get drunk. We walked down there one evening and managed to push the front end of his car and most of the rest into the river adjacent to the pub car park. He thought he must have forgotten to put the handbrake on.

It was a terrible thing to do, but at the same time most rewarding.