A student openly defied and disrespected his chemistry teacher by refusing to hand over his phone and pay attention in class. This displays a growing culture of disrespect towards teachers in schools across the United States. Students challenge teachers' authority and believe they don't have to respect teachers unless respect is earned. Teachers face disrespect, verbal abuse, and cyberbullying from students. While technology has created new ways for students to criticize and ridicule teachers online, one student noted that anonymously complaining about teachers on the internet is cowardly. A survey found that 27% of teachers were verbally threatened and 37% were targets of obscene remarks from students in the past year.

1. Culture of disrespect permeates schools
By Natalie Landau/For the Appeal­Democrat | Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2012 12:00 am
A fellow student — we shall call him Joe — was busily texting during class instead of writing
chemistry notes when the teacher told him to hand over the phone and pay attention. Joe responded
with a defiant and resounding "no." Smirking, he shoved the phone into his pocket, leaned back in his
chair and nonchalantly crossed his arms, challenging the teacher to dare to get it.
The teacher did not have many options. She could order the student to the principal — and probably
elicit Joe's refusal to budge from the spot, which would require a security officer to manhandle him
out; she could threaten him with calls home and detention (and ignore Joe's response that she was a
useless teacher and his parents would get her fired); or she could resume her lecture and let the
triumphant Joe win this one, taking some solace in the fact that Joe probably wasn't going to win
much in the future earnings scale.
Shocking as it may seem, this arrogant rejection of good manners by students has become second
nature in schools across the United States. While the media reports about bullying amongst students,
it rarely mentions the abuse that teachers receive. From outright disrespect to more subtle
cyberbullying, the growing entitlement attitude in students is causing much stress and pain to
teachers.
"Disrespect toward teachers has definitely become worse," exclaimed Jaclyn Lewis, a senior at
Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts. "Through video games, television and music, society
teaches children to disobey and hate authority figures."
I hear students make comments such as, "They gotta give respect to earn it." This was not something I
grew up with. I was taught that all adults were to be treated with courtesy and deference — and one
would expect that teachers, people who had slaved for years to earn college degrees, would
automatically get any callow youth's respect.
But apparently experience, persistence, dedication and a well­honed mind mean nothing now;
teachers must pay homage to the nose­picking, lugie­hacking, gum­chewing wad of humanity that
tells her she "don't know nothin'."
Andrea Mejia, MCAA English and creative writing teacher, recalls a time when she asked a student to
remain silent and he refused. "He screamed at me, and when I asked him to leave the room, he
continued to yell. Finally, I had to call the office." She has also dealt with students picking up chairs
and threatening to throw them at her.
The torment, however, does not stay within the confines of the classroom. Technology has created

2. another outlet for petulant whining on the Internet. Through websites such as Facebook, Twitter,
MySpace and RateMyTeacher, students and even parents have criticized, ridiculed and falsely
portrayed many educators, often destroying their victims' self­esteem and sometimes even their
careers.
Kalia Klein, an MCAA senior, said, "Anyone who has to anonymously moan about their teachers on
the Internet is a coward."
When I was younger, I recall my father explaining how when he misbehaved in school, the teacher
would call him to the front of the room to take "six of the best," meaning six hits to the backside by a
cane. California outlawed corporal punishment in 1987, but 19 states still use it in schools.
I agree that corporal punishment is brutality, but teacher abuse is out of control. A 2010 study by the
American Psychological Association showed that out of 4,735 teachers nationwide, 27 percent said
they had been verbally threatened by a student in the past year, and 37 percent had been the target of
obscene or sexual remarks from students.
Natalie Landau is a senior at Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts. Her column appears every six
weeks in Education.