Bullying Involving Adults

Bullying doesn’t only happen with children and young people. Adults can bully other adults and young people can bully members of staff in schools. 

Sometimes, adults in schools can bully young people. This does not happen often.


You could be being bullied by an adult if you they:

• always tell you off, even though many other people were behaving in the same way as you.
• repeatedly blame you for things you can prove you did not do.
• repeatedly refuse to listen to ‘your side of the story’ 
• always turn a ‘blind eye’ when you are being bullied 
• join in when other young people bully you. For example, joining in with nicknames you have said you don’t like or calling names 
• treat you differently because you are, or they think you might be, lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans (e.g. mocking a boy in PE for choosing a ‘girly sport’)  
• tease you or make inappropriate comments (especially if they are homophobic or racist) 
• repeatedly make you do things you find embarrassing or uncomfortable

If you think you are being bullied by a member of staff you need to talk to another adult about it. If you want to be taken seriously you must behave maturely and sensibly about it. If you have done things wrong in the past, you need to be willing to accept your part in these problems.

You need to be clear about what the problem is and give specific examples of what is going on. It’s not really helpful if all you can say is ‘Miss Smith doesn’t like me’, you need to be more precise about how you know she doesn’t like you.

It is also really difficult for schools to sort out bullying involving staff if you are behaving in the way which that adult seems to expect. If your behaviour is really challenging in their class, then you have given that teacher good reason to discipline you.

Surprise them by behaving exceptionally well!