Teachers will stand up to their bullies: ASTI

Offensive graffiti, abusive telephone calls, personal remarks, door-slamming and malicious damage to property are some of the instances of bullying experienced by teachers, according to a new ASTI survey.

"We are no longer willing to tolerate this," Charlie Lennon, general secretary of the ASTI, said, launching the survey in Dublin last week.

One-third of respondents to the survey said they had experienced bullying behaviour at parent-teacher meetings. Twenty-six per cent said they had been the target of personally offensive graffiti in the course of their work. And 28 per cent said they had experienced abusive work-related telephone calls. The survey on bullying also found that 68 per cent of the responding teachers had suffered verbal abuse in the course of their work. Almost twice as many females as males experienced verbal abuse, which, according to the survey's definition, "is typically considered to include shouting, screaming, using vulgar or foul language, being `given out to' and name calling".

The figures are "very worrying, but we are trying to keep a perspective on it," Lennon said. "We want it addressed in a whole range of ways. For any teacher to be bullied is a serious matter." Nine per cent of teachers surveyed had suffered sexual harassment. This term, which was not defined in the survey, includes, according to Lennon, "women teachers being subjected to touching in corridors where it becomes threatening for the individual because she doesn't feel safe" and "remarks about dress". Of this 9 per cent, the vast majority (92 per cent) were female; some 65 per cent of those who were sexually harassed were non post-holders.

The survey questionnaire was sent to 1,000 randomly selected post-primary teachers, of whom more than 60 per cent responded. The vast majority said they had not ever been unfairly threatened with dismissal in the course of their work. However, half said that in the course of their work they had felt "ignored" or "deliberately excluded by another person".

Of the 23 per cent of teachers who experienced malicious teasing, taunting, mocking or ridicule in front of others, almost half were treated in this way by pupils in the 12-to-15 age group.

The union recommends that where bullying occurs victims should take appropriate steps to ensure that the behaviour ceases. They should seek the advice and support of a trusted colleague, their ASTI school steward or a head office industrial-relations official. It is ultimately the responsibility of the school's manager or board of management to ensure that the school is a safe and healthy place in which to work, the union points out. The survey, published by the ASTI in its 1999 convention handbook and annual report, will be discussed at the union's Easter week annual conference in Killarney.