Parents Evenings No Abusive Behaviour Policy

I probably don't write about this as much as I should, because I've never personally experienced this. I've never had a parent that I felt threatened by and that I couldn't deal with. But, it seems I'm just lucky.

Normal workplaces have signs up that state something like, "Our staff members deserve to work in a safe workplace. If you are verbally or physically abusive towards our members of staff, you will be asked to leave."

I get how teachers have to be able to deal with abuse from students, and that they can't exactly ask them to leave, but this could very easily be put into place for parent's evenings, and other meetings. From what I have heard from colleagues, friends and other personal accounts, it really needs to be.

In the post I've linked to below, from TES Connect forums, there are a number of teachers who claim to have experienced abuse at parent's evenings. I've quoted the parts that tell you what the parents actually did:

"...shout at me and says that my teaching must be bad."

"...including being spat at, nearly hit and suffering barrages of verbal abuse and expletives."

What makes me really sad is this:

"I had some similar parents last year."

"We've all been there."

It seems I was very lucky indeed to avoid this type of behaviour, and as usual teachers are just left to fend for themselves instead of being protected and supported.

Parents evening