“Members of the Oak Park Unified School District staff will treat parents and other members of the public with respect and expect the same in return.”
This is a direct quote from OPUSD’s Civility Policy, a document created with the intent of maintaining professional interactions between students, staff and parents.
“Students, staff, parents/guardians, and community members shall not communicate or behave in a manner that causes disruption; hinders the orderly conduct of district operations, the educational program, or any other district program or activity; or creates an unsafe learning or working environment.”
One would hope that this sentiment could go unsaid. Ideally, people should treat each other with respect without it having to be a requirement. But our own OPHS teachers’ experiences, and the broader nationwide state of education, proves that the Civility Policy is needed more now than ever. Our district’s existing Civility Policy must be revised to create clear standards that hold the school community accountable and truly protect teachers and their voices.
Earlier this year Oak Park High School teacher Donald Cook dissolved his Geopolitics class—a class which he had spent a decade curating the curriculum and advocating for. This decision was ultimately the result of the extreme mental strain he felt after dealing with a series of parental conflicts over climate science denialism.
Cook’s difficulty with these conflicts stemmed from a combination of student misbehavior, persistent parent involvement and what he perceived to be “a lack of support.”
“If I’m not being defended in these climate science arguments from these angry parents, I don’t want to teach geopolitics anymore, it just isn’t worth my time,” Cook said. “The mental strain was unbelievable on me personally.”
Cook’s situation uniquely highlights several nationwide issues among teachers that are leading to increased burnout, many of which have seen sharp rises following the COVID-19 pandemic. These increased strains have led to a mass teacher exodus with more than 300,000 leaving the profession over a two-year period.
Many educators have attributed this to consistent issues with “aggressive and noncompliant” behavior in the classroom, difficult parents and salaries that don’t equate to the level of work that is required to effectively do their jobs.
“Managing students with behavior problems and working with difficult parents are two other demanding interpersonal challenges that produce chronic stress and leave teachers more vulnerable to depression,” a Penn State publication reported.
At OPHS, several teachers have faced these challenges.
“It is hard to teach a subject when you’re getting a barrage of angry parents attacking you and having no defense,” Cook said. “Some parents think they can say whatever, threaten us, put fingers in our faces, yell, send angry emails and have a screamathon at board meetings.”
Cook’s experiences are not isolated incidents. English teacher Jessica Wall-Smith has also dealt with hostile parent interactions.
”I’ve had parents be aggressive with me, blame me, be accusatory, be belligerent,” Wall-Smith said. “I have had to excuse myself from a meeting where I didn’t feel safe in the same room as a parent who had increased his voice to a level of yelling. That was one of my worst days on this job.”
School administrators are able to defend teachers in this regard. Giving parents an opportunity to speak, while simultaneously ensuring that the teachers in the situation are defended, allows teachers to maintain their authority in the classroom. Wall-Smith noted that during her conflicts, she “felt protected by them [admin].”
When these precautions and protections are taken, parent-teacher interactions can become all around more pleasant and beneficial to the student in the middle of it all.
“We need parent voices, that is not something I would ever want to root out,” Wall-Smith said. “I’ve found that really great results can come from working with parents collaboratively. Where I’ve come into trouble is when parents come in the way of teachers’ attempts to hold students accountable and teach character and integrity.”
Parent voices are critical, and necessary for a student’s success. Positive parent involvement in their child’s education can lead to higher academic performance. However, accepting parents’ criticisms and validating them when it wrongfully questions the teacher’s authority sets a dangerous precedent for future confrontation.
Teachers interact with the students on a daily basis and are often most aware of the nuances that lay in these situations— their voice is essential all around. Ultimately, these issues are complex and cannot be fixed by a “one size fits all” solution.
This is where the civility policy comes in; it can be used to solve issues that arise out of these conflicts. Wall-Smith noted at the time of her conflict with parents, she was unaware of the policy and under what conditions it could be invoked.
“I didn’t know that that existed [at the time],” Wall-Smith said. “I think the reason why we don’t talk about it very much is because it is relatively vague.”
All teachers, students and parents should have a clear understanding of the civility policy and how it works. The policy itself should be more specific as to what conditions would allow the policy to be invoked, ensuring teachers are better able to conduct their job professionally and authoritatively, free from aggressive or inappropriate conflict.
The truth is teachers deserve more than our institutions are giving them. A stronger civility policy, and widespread recognition of it, can affirm their value and bring dignity to the workspace. Teachers can best be protected with an administration who supports them, parents who respect them and a policy that defends them. In a country where teachers are not incentivized to stay in their profession through pay, it’s important that we fight to protect their voices and status as professionals.
