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A new study shows that physical and psychological violence against teachers has increased in German-speaking Switzerland.
Tobias OchsenbeinEditor Politics
Insults, bullying, physical attacks – for many teachers this is the sad reality. Two out of three teachers have experienced violence in the past five years. This is what the umbrella organization of teachers in Switzerland (LCH) writes in a statement. This Monday he wants to present a study on this.
The shocking findings are based on a representative survey of teachers of all ages in German-speaking Switzerland. Teachers are most often at the mercy of psychological violence in the form of insults, verbal abuse, threats or intimidation.
Particularly blatant: In most cases, the violence comes from the parents. But students would also become violent. Teacher Florian Huber* (30) has already experienced this.
Ball peppered in the genitals
Five years ago, before he trained as a teacher at the University of Education, Huber taught third and fourth grades at a Bern school as a deputy. He says: “A student repeatedly provoked me at the time. He spoke during class and was cheeky.”
The situation escalated during a test. Because the student had not been silent, Huber had withdrawn his test. «At first his father complained, later the student lost all inhibitions towards me. He threatened me with violence from his father.”
But that’s not all: in a nasty action, Huber says, the student threw a ball full in his genitals. “It took place in a playful context, but the student did it on purpose, he knew exactly what he was doing.” Huber says he didn’t know how to react at the time and simply smiled away at the incident. And: “I missed the support of the school.”
“I was powerless”
«What amazed me the most was that a ten-year-old student was able to push me so blatantly to the limit and play it off. I was powerless,” says Huber. He has never experienced that again – especially not in the upper school with older students.
Only: Recent attacks show that older students can also use violence. These are shocking incidents.
- March 2022, Goldach SG: In the lower grades at a school, a teacher wanted to settle a dispute between two students – and quickly received a beating from a third grader herself. In the end, the canton police had to move out.
- April 2019, Freiburg: A secondary school student grabs the teacher in the classroom, throws him to the ground and keeps hitting him. The classmates have to step in. The teacher (50) suffers minor injuries. The attack takes him mentally.
- March 2018, Lucerne: A vocational school bans a 17-year-old apprentice from the house because of threats against teachers. Three months later he returns anyway and beats his teacher to the hospital.
High number of unreported cases
Physical and psychological violence can take many forms. But by no means all cases become public. It has been shown, writes the LCH, that many teachers see violence as a taboo subject, which suggests a high number of unreported cases.
Florian Huber also confirms this. He says: “Someone who comes out of training at the age of 22 may be more silent. Students can often be angry and manipulative. A lot of young teachers report that.” There is a lack of strategies against this both in training and in many schools.
This is one of the reasons why the umbrella organization had the study carried out. So far, there is no comprehensive data for Switzerland on how severely teachers are affected by violence. * Name changed
Blick TV will report on Monday, from 10 a.m., on the media conference of the umbrella organization for teachers in Switzerland