Hugh Reilly: Baiting is a bloodsport that must be outlawed

Published on Monday 8 March 2010 21:42

WHILE the tormenting of bears and badgers has long been outlawed, teacher-baiting is flourishing in too many of our schools.

In my experience, the victims of the malevolent pack tend to be teachers who have acquired a reputation for being unable to keep their cool in the face of provocative actions. After all, getting a reaction is the point of the game.

If the entire incident is caught on a mobile phone and posted on YouTube, it's a result.

In the event that Sir be silly enough to counter a barb with a sarcastic comment of his own, a team of barrack-room lawyers will advise their foul-mouthed client that the teacher "can get done for saying things like that".

Of course, teachers should always act in a professional manner towards even those pupils whose sole aim is to humiliate the oldest person in the room but, being human, some snap. Frustrated by the lack of effective sanctions imposed by management on his tormentor, a teacher at the end of his tether can say or do things that might ultimately endanger his career.

Teenagers can make malicious accusations in the knowledge that the matter will be fully investigated, ie the teacher will be suspended and put through the mental health mill before being exonerated. The worst that can happen to his accuser is a few days exclusion, a price worth paying to bring an authority figure to the brink of a breakdown.

Perhaps the number of allegations would decline if police charges followed the lodging of a false complaint. Teacher-baiting is a bloodsport and our leaders must devise solutions if we are to attract the best graduates into the profession.

&#149 Hugh Reilly is a Glasgow secondary teacher