If in an ES, JHS or HS problem students were threatening or being violent to teachers, causing staff to miss work through stress, bullying other students etc. and the senior figures in the school were not dealing with the issues, what options would a teacher have to try to rectify the situation?
Of course, a first step might be to contact the local board of education.
What else might be appropriate?
by Enemywithinthegates
9 comments
Anonymous emails to the board from the “public,” if you don’t email the board directly. Email other departments at the city office then the digital trail is all there for official eyes. They MUST officially respond even if they’re brushing you off then you can take that response to other authorities or media.
I’ve worked with other boards of education and also the board where they literally gave a parent the results of a questionnaire where the kid wrote about domestic violence. That parent later murdered their daughter. I know exactly what happens and the public reaction.
As an ALT? Realistically not much other than protecting yourself where appropriate.
Maybe a controversial answer, but I think it depends on how knowledgeable the person is on what level of outburst is tolerated by Japanese education institutions, whether they’ve talked to other teachers or staff about the situation, how confident they are in their Japanese to not be misinterpreting the situation, etc.
If someone is an ALT with limited Japanese language or cultural proficiency whose main point of comparison is to the standards of their home country, I think it’s generally unwise to get involved or assume they know better than the other people who’ve likely been embedded in the situation for far longer and with more context re: school administration, students’ home life, legal obligations, etc.
The appropriate course of action would be to escalate it up the chain to one’s superiors, but if they don’t take it seriously and you’re confident that your appraisal of the situation is accurate, then I’d look into an anonymous whistleblower hotline/email with local government.
Ahhh, as much as i miss teaching in general, i can’t say i miss these moments.
I’ll never forget being reprimanded by my company for a “physical altercation” i had with 3rd year jhs student over a decade ago… I was not licensed to deal with it and it should’ve been the responsibility of the JTE to control and discipline the student.
The altercation?
I stepped in between him and the terrified licensed young female Japanese teacher just out of college to put space between them and he lunged at us (i guess expecting me to move out of the way). I ended up punched in the face protecting her since i didn’t want to risk putting my hands up and in effect, laying my hands on a student, even if it was in self defense.
She thanked me but literally quit teaching the next day. The school thanked me. My company “thanked me” off the record but lectured me about breaking the rules and they switched me out to another school at the end of the semester.
Of course, being Japan, that pos kid apologized laughing in front of the principal and other teachers, which means it was a sincere apology in the eyes of the fucktard educational system here, and nothing happened to him as far as i know.
Anyway. TLDR:
you can’t legally take any direct action on your own. You can live by your morals and risk your job like i did back then, but ultimately, there aint shit you can do unless you’ve got another potential job lined up.
If a student kills another that isnt my responsibility as an ALT. That’s on them for not telling students to not kill each other.
I rememeber during an assembly this big fat punk Japanese kid in my JHS basically lifted his homeroom teacher and piledrived him for trying to dicipline him. Man crazy stuff happens in the inaka.
Setup a new Reddit account to tell everybody that during your 3 months as an ALT you’ve discovered that everybody else working at the school is inferior to you and should be sacked? 😛
As an ALT? Or as an actual teacher? If you have to ask the question, I am assuming you are an ALT.
TL:DR; As the song says, Let It Go.
I know this is a harsh take that will be downvoted by the hive, but it is not worth your time or stress to worry about something you are not equipped to deal with.
Longer version; my younger, unqualified self felt the same way. Made waves. It was only a few years later that I realized how tone-deaf, blind, and frankly, how I was being a problem compared to how the system works here.
Is that system perfect? Not at all. But once you see it in action, over the course of years, you see there is a logic to it, and an effectiveness that works in the majority of cases compared to the western style, claim based system.
You want to go ahead an make anonymous emails? Go ahead. They will get anonymously investigated. Maybe my school is different. But after sitting in on literally hundreds of hours of student discipline meetings with students, parents, teachers, and administrators, I can tell you that we do not ignore ANY indication of poor behavior. But we also do not share private information with anyone other than those involved. What we try to do is create restorative justice in it truest sense. And if the student fails at that, at least we can say we didn’t lower ourselves to the level of simple vindictiveness. And, in the long run, I have personally seen life outcomes change for the better because of that approach, and have had the most recalcitrant 16 year return a decade later and thank us for treating them so fairly, and how that changed their life.
Maybe your situation is different, and they really don’t care. Regardless, your position is not one in which you would be part of the loop, nor should it be.
> what options would a teacher have to try to rectify the situation?
A teacher? They can talk to their level head, VP, P, or even reach out to the Board of Education that they are under. Outside of that, they can probably see a doctor and get paid leave for stress and/or workplace harassment.
However, if the question is “What options would an ALT have…”? It would depend if they are dispatch, or a direct hire. If they are dispatch, not a whole lot, except to perhaps to keep their company informed of the situation, and to put in a request to change to a different school. If they are direct hire, they should be able to reach out directly to the BOE that hired them (after trying to talk to their VP, P about it).
But realistically? What are you expecting/hoping be done? It’s not like the school doesn’t know about the situation, and it’s not likely that they do not care either; if so, then my best guess would be there are constraints that limit what they can and can’t do… and if that is the case, the only viable/reasonable option for anyone caught up in this (staff, or student), is to request to transfer to somewhere else. You can’t fix crazy.
If it’s violence, going to the police is an option. Admin/social pressure may heavily discourage it and the teacher in question may “feel” it is impossible but it is in fact not. I’ve seen a teacher get over themself and do it (but fwiw admin was “it’s your choice” about it).
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