A Taboo Subject

When you hear about a school bully, you might automatically picture that big-for-his-age fifth grade boy or a teen girl whose manner of dress and speech makes her look and sound a bit rough and tough. All too often, however, school bullies are actually the grown-ups in charge [2].

The end of Jim Crow was supposed to herald a new era of school integration and do away with the second-class citizens the law had created. Did it? Or, are these kids—mostly low-income, males of color—being targeted by administrators and teachers, who are mostly middle class and white? Could racism be at the heart of the matter?

As a former substitute teacher, I have witnessed both white- and black-on-black discrimination firsthand. Even the students’ parents who meet with administrators about the treatment of their children are often bullied as a means of control.

Adult bullying manifests itself in different ways: being physically abusive, labeling a student as “trouble,” ridiculing students in front of others, having students arrested without investigations or school-based interventions, or letting certain kids be bullied by other kids or teachers. The stories are endless. They continue only because people with the power to stop the bullying don’t speak up.

Statistics show that white students get little to no punishment for the same infractions that get black students suspended. It’s a vicious cycle for these students who miss weeks of class, fall behind and are lost when they return. It is no small wonder that the result is a high drop-out rate that feeds the school-to-prison pipeline.

By the time these children become known to agencies and organizations, they’ve been labeled “juvenile delinquents,” and the damage has been done. By adults. But not necessarily by their parents.

If all of our youth are to grow and develop properly with an equal chance in life, they need to be protected while they are at school—by the people paid to teach, counsel and lead them. We also need to ensure that students are protected from the people paid to teach, counsel and lead them when those people are abusive.

Editor’s note: Teaching Tolerance has resources to help you combat teacher bullying [3] at your school.

Lama is a social activist and former substitute teacher living in North Carolina.