Principals being bullied and threatened
With female principals more likely still to be victims of threats or violence, the Australian researcher who oversaw the study among primary and second-level principals has said that an independent investigation should be set up to probe the issues.
The study for the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) and National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) examined a range of health and wellbeing issues, with over 800 responses received.
Almost 8% of principals and deputies have suffered violence in the last year, mostly from students but around 1% from parents. The total figure could equate to the leaders at hundreds of schools if applied to all 4,000 schools in the country, with possibly dozens being victims of physical violence on a daily or weekly basis.
One in eight received threats of violence a few times in the past year, but 1% did so daily, weekly, or monthly, and violent threats from parents were received by 9% of principals surveyed.
Almost one in five have been subjected to bullying a few times in the past year, with colleagues and parents the main perpetrators.
Almost 3% — equivalent to around 200 principals or deputies — were bullied every day or every week.
IPPN president Brendan McCabe said cases of violence and threats regularly came to the organisation’s attention, although he could not say if they were on the rise.
“It could be instances of bullying among staff themselves, or in interactions with parents who behave inappropriately to the principal,” he said, after the report was published at IPPN’s annual conference.
“Very often, a parent will get into conflict with the school where their perception of a child’s behaviour is very different from the school’s. Other areas may be where parents feel they are not getting the resources they need.”
The biggest cause of concern to IPPN and NAPD was the levels of stress that emerged; much higher than expected and higher than in the general population.
Dr Philip Riley, associate professor at Australian Catholic University and research leader, said the results suggested a need to look for causes and reduce levels of adult to adult bullying, threats, and actual violence in schools. He said the findings only reflected a point in time, but suggested the problem of bullying and violence was system-wide.
“The results of this first year of the survey may reflect Irish society more broadly, rather than school culture specifically. Evidence of offensive behaviour in other social workplaces, such as hospitals, suggests that this might be the case,” his report states.
“However, if governments and employer groups are committed to improving the quality of school education for all stakeholders, this issue needs careful attention.”.
