In July 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported a lawsuit between a private school and a parent over the school’s treatment of its students during a time of emotional turmoil. What was the initial issue that sparked the litigious chain of events? A student’s inappropriate behavior during a classroom exam.
Emotional outbursts can surprise and intimidate teachers unprepared to handle them—especially younger, inexperienced teachers. Let’s review how teachers could and should respond to students throwing hissy fits.
Plan in Advance
When teachers aren’t trained in how to deal with emotional outbursts from students, research has suggested that teachers will default to their own childhood experiences for ways to handle the situation. Rebecca Swartz, primary author of “Preservice Teachers’ Emotion-Related Regulation and Cognition: Associations With Teachers’ Responses to Children’s Emotions in Early Childhood Classrooms,” told PsychCentral that “teachers want to make negative emotions go away. Instead we need to use them as learning opportunities,” showing students empathy for their emotions rather than dismissal.
Training teachers, then, gives a different foundational response than instinct, which may or may not be helpful. ISM recommends that schools determine whom to contact, and when, in a formal policy before the situation ever arises. Be sure to include local first responders such as EMTs and police in both planning and drills.
Know When to Call Backup
Expecting teachers to be able to handle every situation is foolhardy. Due to physical size or personal nature, there will be some cases a teacher may not be capable of handling. And so, while assessing a developing situation with a student, teachers should know when it’s appropriate to handle outbursts alone and when to find extra support from fellow adults. (They should also feel comfortable reaching out for that support!)
Michael Linsin on the Smart Classroom Management blog agrees, saying that a teacher’s first priority is the safety of his or her students. If the situation warrants, the teacher should call for help from the colleague next door, an administrator, or even the police. (Of course, the teacher would know whom to contact at what point, thanks to the training he or she received earlier!)
Calm, Cool, and Collected
Remaining level-headed in a crisis is a trait that all caretakers should foster and demonstrate. Such a feat can be difficult to accomplish, especially if the classroom has been relatively peaceful for a while.
When confronted with a hostile student, teachers should avoid aggressive body posture like crossed arms and engaging the student in arguments or threats (“You’ll be kicked out of the school for this!”). This will help maintain a calmer classroom than otherwise, says Dr. Ken Shore for Education World. He adds that you shouldn’t take the student’s comments personally, even in a heated discussion:
Remind yourself that the comments might be unrelated to anything you said or did. Indeed, her anger might have nothing to do with events in school; it might stem from home issues instead. If you fear you might react in a way that fuels a student's anger, try taking a deep breath and counting to five before responding to her.
Listen—at the Right Time
The National Education Association (NEA) published an article on handling disruptive students, written by former teacher and principal Peter Lorain. In the article, Lorain presents a hypothetical situation between a sixth grade teacher and an insubordinate student. The teacher does not engage the student’s need to argue, but rather asks an assistant to escort the student out of the room so that teaching can resume for the rest of the class.
However, the student is given the opportunity to speak at a later time, so that “his side” of the story is told to all parties and authorities involved. This point illustrates that, while arguing with a student in a full class setting in front of other students should be avoided at all costs, giving the student a chance to air his or her grievances in private allows the student to feel heard and appreciated—and perhaps more cooperative.
On a related note, Lorain also advises that a teacher address the student’s behavior, and not necessarily the student him- or herself, by using a conversational framework that mimics this one: “You did this, it’s not acceptable because of XYZ, and these are the immediate and future consequences of those actions.” That way, the value judgment is placed on the behavior—not the student personally.
Students experience pressures at home and at school that occasionally test—and completely topple!—the lines of acceptable behavior. Teachers knowing when and how to approach students’ emotional outbursts can limit the psychological and physiological impact on both the student and the school itself.
Additional ISM resources:
Private School News Vol. 9 No. 11 The Autistic Child in Your Classroom
ISM Monthly Update for Risk Managers Vol. 3 No. 1 Crisis Planning--It's Your Job
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 10 No. 6 When (Not If) a Crisis Happens, Will You Be Ready?
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 36 No. 8 21st Century Teaching: Stability and Challenge
I&P Vol. 31 No. 4 Faculty and Support Staff: Mutual Respect and Support
