physical aggression towards teachers

[Anonymous]

At what age does it stop being within the spectrum of normal for a 5.5 year old student to hit, kick, push teachers when angry?
What is normal for a one time "rare" incident?
What is within normal for incidents that happen several times per week?

Assume that the teachers and staff are responsive, using developmentally appropriate methods of instruction and class routines, lots of recess, lots of SEL lessons, lots of firm kindness.

[Anonymous]

Never. Even 2 year olds know not to hit and kick teachers. Maybe a push to get past or the kid is trying to say move back or go away.

[Anonymous]

Id say about once a month is normal

[Anonymous]

It's never ever normal. Get your kid help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Id say about once a month is normal

What crazy world do you live in where it is normal for kindergarten teachers get hit and kicked once a month by every student? So a teacher is getting kicked and hit by all the students at least once a month? The poor teacher is going to end up black and blue all over by the end of the month.

No. It is NOT normal.

[Anonymous]

I teach elementary school. This normalizes violence for the other kids. And yes, it happens most days of the week while admin and guidance counselors and a “special team of trained teachers” attempt some psychological method which clearly doesn’t work.

[Anonymous]

None of my kids ever did that at any age. I would be very concerned if they did.

[Anonymous]

It’s not at all normal and indicates that the child has poor coping skills and does not know how to regulate. It’s scary for classmates to witness, as well.

[Anonymous]

My son was physically aggressive to me at this age. I took him to a developmental pediatrician and yup level one autism. “This is the kid we always miss” the doctor said (because he is very high functioning). Great but we still need help

[Anonymous]

I taught preschool for over a decade. I was only hit one time, by a child who was not neurotypical. I would assume a kindergarten who did it was not NT or being hurt at home.

[Anonymous]

Kindergarten teacher here. I get hit every few years although it’s been every other year recently.

[Anonymous]

Not normal. We've seen kids with meltdowns and who throw things when they are upset at that age but they never target anyone in particular especially an adult.

[Anonymous]

The child is walking up to the teachers and hitting them, or the child is reacting to something physical from a teacher? This is important.

The antecedent and the consequence of the behavior is as important as the behavior itself. If you can't answer these questions you won't know if the behavior can be characterized as normal or understandable.

I witnessed a couple of kids hit teachers at the school I worked in. One time a teacher trying to physically move a K child by picking her up and the child kicked her. Another time a teacher blocked the door when a child wanted to leave the room. I have heard about but have not personally seen kids struggling and as a result hitting adults when the adults try to restrain them after they threw something or they had to break up a fight with another student.

Have not seen a child hit a teacher because they are upset about something not physical like not wanting o comply with an instruction or not getting to play or felt hurt by something the teacher said. That would be out of the norm.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. I teach kindergarten and am not talking about my own child. I've been hit, kicked and pushed on at least a dozen occasions by a child in the last 8 weeks. My direct supervisor keeps telling me this is in the spectrum of normal. As for the before and after, one time the student kicked me because when he asked for help with his backpack I was helping a student and needed him to wait a minute. He literally walked over and started screaming at me and kicked me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. I teach kindergarten and am not talking about my own child. I've been hit, kicked and pushed on at least a dozen occasions by a child in the last 8 weeks. My direct supervisor keeps telling me this is in the spectrum of normal. As for the before and after, one time the student kicked me because when he asked for help with his backpack I was helping a student and needed him to wait a minute. He literally walked over and started screaming at me and kicked me.

Your district supervisor is FOS and probably hasn't been in a classroom as a teacher for 10+ years.

Start taking photos of any injuries and documenting the incidents in writing and send both to your principal and district supervisor. Screenshot the emails so they don't end up "lost". If you're in a union or professional organization, cc your rep on these emails.