Female teachers say they are being sworn at and abused by male students – and parents
Female teachers have given horrifying accounts of sexually explicit threats and abuse from students and parents – while school leaders allegedly told male staff to stay silent.
Teachers are being sworn at and called “sluts” and “bitches” by students and parents – but say they are told by some school leaders “not to talk about” the shocking treatment.
In one alarming case, the father of a teenage boy harassing a female teacher called for other staff to “tell this f**king bitch to pull her head in” when she questioned the boy’s behaviour.
Another female teacher was “pushed into a corner” by a 16-year-old boy who was swearing and yelling after his mobile phone had been confiscated.
The confronting cases have emerged in anonymous surveys of 160 teachers at public and private schools across South Australia and 70 staff at university campuses around the country.
University of Adelaide and UniSA academics also held 14 in-depth interviews as part of the research conducted last year.
Teachers told of increasingly rude and sexist behaviour by boys in class “mostly targeting female teachers and virtually all involving Andrew Tate”, an American self-proclaimed misogynist who has been charged with rape and human trafficking.
The researchers, including University of Adelaide Associate Professor Samantha Schulz, warn this is “playing out against … a crisis of teacher attrition and a domestic, family and sexual violence epidemic” and have called for more support for teachers to address the root beliefs driving the behaviour.
Cases detailed in their recently published research include:
A TEEN boy telling his female teacher to “f**k off bitch” after she questioned him over repeatedly arriving late to class.
THE father of that boy calling the teacher a “fat bitch” and a “slut” when she raised her concerns with him. The teacher said the man then told another school staff member: “Can you tell this f**kin’ bitch to pull her head in? She needs someone to just f**k her.”
BOYS as young as 11 making moaning noises in class and telling teachers they look like “a porn star”.
STUDENTS watching sexualised videos on YouTube in class.
A SCHOOL principal telling a female teacher: “Just because you say it’s harassment it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is”.
MALE teachers feeling that they cannot do anything to change student attitudes because “the scale of the problem is too big” and it is outside “our duties as teachers”.
One male teacher at a public high school told the researchers that when he intervened with a group of 17-year-old boys who had been taunting a female teacher with lewd comments the behaviour stopped because the young men “accepted me as an authority figure … a man with a beard”.
When asked how the situation was dealt with by school leadership, he said: “We were told not to talk about it”.
SA Education Minister Blair Boyer said the behaviour reported in the research was “not only completely unacceptable, but exactly why our government is focused on teaching respectful relationships” in schools.
The government has banned mobile phones in classrooms and students undertake mandatory lessons which cover concepts such as gender stereotypes, consent, bullying, harassment, sexism, misogyny and discrimination.
Education Department acting chief executive Ben Temperly said staff were “not directed to remain silent about incidents of harassment or abuse” but were “encouraged to report concerns through clear, established processes”.
“Where teachers raise concerns about behaviour, site leaders are required to act promptly, document actions and ensure staff are supported,” he said.
Opposition education spokeswoman Heidi Girolamo said “hardworking teachers should never have to tolerate disgraceful behaviour” like that revealed in the research.
“(We are) already facing a teacher retention and recruitment crisis and, without stronger support measures and effective behaviour management, we risk losing these essential workers to other professions,” she said.
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Originally published as Female teachers say they are being sworn at and abused by male students – and parents
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