Evening everyone,
TL;DR who should I contact in my school/city hall about bullying/abuse happening to a student that has been going on for quite a while, with no solution from the teachers in my school?
I work as an ALT for a junior high school in a somewhat suburban part of my town.
The student in question is a fluent Japanese/English speaker with American/Japanese parents. They look physically different from the other students, clearly have some adjustment issues, and is mostly isolated from the rest of their class in terms of social ties. Their parents are highly conservative (In the USA sense) and do not take their child’s issues seriously.
Lately it’s come to my attention that this student who has some sort of unspecified special need is getting bullied by another one of the special needs students. It’s not even hidden either, it happens during my classes while I’m teaching, causing the victim to storm out of the class at least three times a week. Since I’m not the main teacher, every time I tell the JTE he seems just as confused as me about what to do, and nothing gets done.
Frankly, this is unacceptable. There are teachers and specialists in this school who seem to be tending to the special needs kids but in terms of this abuse it seems like nothing can be done. I’m tired of having to see this kid be physically miserable every day and spend at least an hour every day talking them down.
TL;DR who should I contact in my school/city hall about this?
Edit: So for now based on advice here I’m going to do as much research as possible about this situation and try to push the people laterally around me. If that doesn’t work I’ll escalate it to someone higher up.
15 comments
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Have you tried talking to the JTE directly? Have you tried talking to any other senior teachers that you are friendly with, or the principal?
You can’t personally do much, as it will be seen as overstepping. Not only because it’s not part of your job, but also because you aren’t Japanese.
You also may want to consider that there are other factors at play than what you personally see going on. You may not have all the information you would need if you were to intervene in some way.
I think your hands are mainly tied here, and the only thing you can really do is keep bugging the JTE to do something.
This is a very frustrating aspect of being an ALT. You just don’t have the power or standing. But if you think it might help, you could try chatting with that student during lunch or break times, being friendly, offering support. Maybe a friendly face would help him/her? That’s the only thing I can really think of.
Ughh what a horrible situation. Unfortunately, when parents refuse to see the issue or take steps to help, there’s very little you can do. At this point it would seem the best you can do is work out ways to keep them separated in classes, differentiate lessons as much as you are able for the student/s who need extra help and keep an eye on the aggressive student. If there’s any procedure at the school for dealing with bad behavior, that might be your way to a conversation about what he’s doing with someone who might listen.
If the parents aren’t involved its going to be hard or impossible. Also as someone said not really your place but if you want to go down that path its basically just work your way up the chain of command. JTE, Vice Principle, Principle, BOE. If you are a city BOE employee (instead of just through the school) that is another card you can play by just reporting concerns about school not following BOE policies though you will burn bridges big time. There is always a lot of out of site out of mind things going on between schools and BOEs. If a policy around bullying is not being enforced you can report it to the BOE. Though again, you will destroy your relationship with the school and it might not help the kid at all.
I’m applying for an ALT job and my major is actually Special Education. I’ve been thinking about situations like that and IMO, you might find ways to report it. Sure, you’re “just as an ALT” as others would say but seriously though, you might as well have to find a way to report it anonymously.
Also, I don’t think it’s an unspecified special need but perhaps undiagnosed. It might have something to do with the parents. Maybe they’re still in the denial stage.
Contacting your city hall is going to cause you more problems than it solves for this kid, so here are some potential steps you can take:
1. Take up smoking/vaping (or at least pretend to your vape pen could just be filled with water). Go outside, when the Kyoutou-sensei (vice-principal) or Kouchou-sensei (principal) takes their smoke break and strike up a casual conversation where you comment that there’s a lot of bullying in Japan, e.g. this student’s situation. Don’t ask for anything to be done. Just comment. They’ll probably suck their teeth, say it’s tough. Nod in agreement. Look saddened. He’ll sit on it for a month and then growl at someone.
Why smoke? Because you’re off school property and this becomes a “social” conversation, not a work conversation. An alternative is to wait for a drinking party and corner one of them there while “drunk”. The entire name of the game is “plausible deniability” and that the issue isn’t “on the record”.
2. Proximity. Yes, discipline isn’t your responsibility as an ALT, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t influence the students’ behaviour. A very simple technique is to move around the class while teaching. Instead of teaching from the front of the class move around and if you should, but some random chance find yourself standing near the bully’s desk more often than not… well, you’ll notice they straighten up and act much better when you’re around. If you happen to catch them at something then I find that silence and just staring at them until they cut it out makes every student turn to find out why I stopped talking, which has then staring at the bully too. They get the message quickly and while it’s only in your class it’s a start.
3. Rearrange them. Organise some group work and just casually allocate the students to groups. You can even make it look random by using a deck of playing cards and just quietly “stack the deck” so that the bully and the bullied kid never end up in the same group. Less pointed than the other technique, but it achieves the objective. Comment to the Japanese teacher how much happier the student seemed during the paired activity and gently nudge them towards the idea that separating them physically may be a good starting point.
4. Pick on the bully. I know this seems mean, but every time he starts acting up then “randomly” choose him to answer a question. If he has more than two braincells he should realise the pattern with time – when he starts doing something naughty he gets asked to answer a question. The harder the question the better. Simple aversion therapy. Pretty quickly he’ll find himself getting unaccountably nervous every time he even contemplates bullying the other student.
While discipline isn’t strictly speaking the ALT’s problem (for legal reasons) that doesn’t mean that you’re helpless and unable to do anything. Speak to experienced ALTs in your area for other tips and tricks they may have picked up over the years for reigning in difficult students.
I punished the one who hurt and started the disturbance. I call thevparents. However i taught on rural OK
Welcome👏to👏Japan👏
(Seriously mental health awareness here is like, medieval status)
What prefecture are you in? I know that mine has some kind of bullying hotline/helpline because they send pamphlets home in my kid’s backpack every couple months… now, is it effective? Is there any follow up, problem solving, etc? I have no idea. But in my prefecture at least (Saitama), there is something set up specifically for this purpose. In fact, one page of the brochure is actually a form that a child could mail to the anti-bullying group directly if their parents and teachers refuse to help.
Since you’ve not mentioned what this “bullying” entails it’s very difficult to give pertinent advice.
While I know your heart is in the right place, my advice in these situations in to not get involved. Too many times I’ve seen ALT’s fired or not had their contracts renewed because they wanted to help a student. When something happened, it was pinned on the ALT as the scape goat. ‘Discipline’ is a matter for the JTE or HR teacher, they are insured/backed by the school/BoE incase something bad does happen, you are not and its not in your contract duties.
Tread carefully if you decided to do anything OP.
I taught any and all who came in my classroom. With individual plans or not law in OK must pass Alge 1 and 2
Be really careful here.
You mentioned you’re an employee of the BoE, indicating you’re likely a direct-hire employee and not on JET. Depending on what you do, this job could easily not be available to you next year.
Do you understand Japanese at N2 or above? You say nothing’s being done, but even at a high level of Japanese comprehension, there is the chance that something has been done or is being implemented, it’s just when you’re not there. There’s even less they can do about it if the parents don’t care.
If the position is not that important to you – you’re single and ready to move if need be – by all means, use passive-aggressive means to try and alter the situation. I think you should try talking with the kid in question, though. There’s often a lot of teasing in special ed classes, and with the special needs in question, sometimes even the most well-thought-out plans come to nothing.
Best of luck with whatever you choose to do, but try to make it as… low-key as possible. Definitely stay away from the BoE and/or city hall.
Do you need to use thst stupid inclusive language? It”s a group of kids getting bullied?
Dude/dudette …. Straight up. If my kid was in a school and being bullied and the teacher didn’t tell me, I would be out for blood.
Always do what’s right! Find a way to let the parents know and let them know the severity.