Introduction
Teacher bullying has become common among schools. It occurs in different ways. The following essay explores evidence offered by Kelmon, (2014), in defending her claims against teacher bullying.
Main body
Kelmon (2014) claims that teachers are turning out to be the bullies in schools. There is plenty of evidence that teachers turn out to be bullies because Kelmon has used case studies. She quotes Eubanks, “They both pulled me in to say they were worried about my kid,” she says, “that he couldn’t pay attention, couldn’t focus. They were both hinting that my son needed medication” (para 4). Using direct quotes provides evidence from the case study. In (para 20), Kelmon gives a case example of a student who fought back, and the matter caused adverse effects on his academic records. At this point, Kelmon only gives the moral of the story, which is insufficient evidence for the point she is proving. However, Ragaruma (2018) shows that schools do not deal with teacher bullying, which exposes students to hurt and humiliation Datta et al. (2017). Additionally, Nearchou (2018) provides that there is emotional abuse by teachers in schools. Nearchou (2018) also states that the effects of emotional abuse emit negative behavior in children. Therefore, this validifies arguments by Kelmon (2014), that a student fought back and was suspended from school. Sosteric, (2012), identifies a form of emotional abuse, which is degradation and public humiliation whereby students are humiliated publicly. The latter is similar to what Eubanks’ son went through. Reid & Kawash (2017) also state that coercion makes the students disoriented from school and studies.
Kelmon, (2014) claims that bullying by teachers is complicated. Kelmon (2014) justifies her claim when she uses a teacher’s confession. Kelmon quoted the teacher to substantiate her notion, “I became a teacher when I was in my early 20s, and I was horrible to the kids. I was a monstrous bully to the special ed kids I taught … I was eventually forced to resign, and after three years, I realized why I was wrong. I changed completely, and when I went back to teaching, I never raised my voice or made any threats. It was wonderful. I learned to lead by example,…” (para 10). Using evidence from only one teacher makes it look insufficient and biased. Despite being incomplete, the evidence is vital, as Thelen (2016) states that teachers’ abuse of power can become unnecessary aggressive behavior. Also, Eriyanti (2018) shows how it is a result of the abuse of power. Huang et al. (2018) speak of the cases of bullying among students. He argues that teachers easily bully students with lower internalization capacity. This supported Kelmon’s arguments when one of the teachers mentioned that he abused special education students. Allen (2020) mentions that teacher’s acts of bullying are associated with superiority complex. The desire to feel superior pushes the teacher to bully, which validifies the evidence by Kelmon, which shows the abuse of power by teachers. (Moeller, 2018), shows that it is complicated to deal with school bullying because most of the strategies handle students to students bullying.
Conclusion
To wrap up, Kelmon used several substantial evidences to prove her claims that “teacher bullying is becoming a national issue” and ” teacher bullying is a complex issue”. Several authors have been used to show the validity of her arguments and evidences.
References
Allen, O. (2020). Why Do Teachers Abuse Their Power? The Roaring Times.
Moeller, J. (2018). What If the Bully Is a Teacher? Psychology Today.
Ragaruma, M. (2018). Abuse of powers by teachers in our schools. Gossip.
Sosteric, M. (2012). The emotional abuse of our children: Teachers, schools, and the sanctioned violence of our modern institutions. SocJourn.
Thelen, T. (2016). Can Teachers Bully Students? TOMTHELEN.
Huang, F. L., Lewis, C., Cohen, D. R., Prewett, S., & Herman, K. (2018). Bullying involvement, teacher–student relationships, and psychosocial outcomes. School psychology quarterly, 33(2), 223.
Nearchou, F. (2018). Resilience following emotional abuse by teachers: Insights from a cross-sectional study with Greek students. Child Abuse & Neglect, 78, 96-106.
Eriyanti, Ribut. (2018). Power Gap as One of the Trigger of Verbal Abuses Committed by Teachers in Schools. International Journal of Instruction. 11. 363-378. 10.12973/iji.2018.11125a.
Reid, L. F., & Kawash, J. (2017). Let’s talk about power: How teacher use of power shapes relationships and learning. Papers on postsecondary learning and teaching, 2, 34-41.
Datta, P., Cornell, D., & Huang, F. (2017). The toxicity of bullying by teachers and other school staff. School psychology review, 46(4), 335-348.
Kelmon, J. (2016). When the teacher is the bully. Great schools: Parenting. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/when-the-teacher-is-the-bully