This document provides guidance for teachers on how to handle confrontational students in the classroom. It recommends that teachers remain calm and avoid losing their temper, raising their voice, or getting other students involved. Teachers should privately speak to confrontational students, call the office for help if needed, use referrals as a last resort, contact parents, create behavior plans for ongoing issues, talk to students later to understand triggers, and treat each student as an individual. It also advises against goading students.

1. One of the scariest issues for teachers is
dealing with confrontational students in the
classroom. While confrontations do not occur
everyday in every classroom, most if not all
secondary school teachers will have to deal
with a student who is acting belligerent and
speaking in out in their classroom.

2.  Do Not Lose Your Temper
This can be harder than it sounds. However, it is
imperative that you remain calm. You have a
classroom full of students watching you. If you
lose your temper and start shouting at a
confrontational student, you have given up your
position of authority and lowered yourself to the
student's level. Instead, take a deep breath and
remember that you are the authority figure in the
situation.

3.  Do Not Raise Your Voice
This goes hand in hand with not losing
your temper. Raising your voice will
simply escalate the situation. Instead, a
better tack is to talk quieter as the
student gets louder. This will help you
keep control and appear less
confrontational to the student, thereby
helping to calm the situation.

4.  Do Not Get Other Students Involved
It is counterproductive to get other students
involved in the confrontation. For example, if the
student is making an accusation about something
you did or did not say, do not turn to the rest of the
class to ask them what you said right at that
moment. The confrontational student might feel
backed into a corner and lash out even further. A
better response would be that you will be happy to
speak with them about the situation once they
calm down.

5.  Privately Speak to the Student
You might consider calling a hall conference with the
student. Ask them to step outside to speak with
you. By removing the audience, you can talk with
the student about their issues and try to come to
some sort of resolution before the situation gets
out of hand. Make sure that during this time, you
recognize that you understand they are upset and
then talk with them calmly to determine the best
resolution to the problem.

6.  Call the Office if You Require Help or an Office
Escort
While it is always best to try and diffuse the
situation yourself, you should call the office
and request additional adult assistance if
things are escalating out of hand. If a
student is cussing uncontrollably at you
and/or other students, throwing
things, hitting others, or threatening
violence, you need to get assistance from the
office.

7.  Use Referrals if Necessary
An office referral is one tool in your behavior
management plan. This should be used as a last
resort for students who can not be managed within
the classroom environment. If you write referrals
all the time, you will find that they lose their value
both for your students and also for the
administration as well. In other words, you want
your referrals to mean something and to be acted
on as necessary by the administrator in charge of
the case.

8.  Contact the Student's Parents
Try to get the parent involved as soon as
possible. Let them know what happened in
class and what you would like them to do to
help with the situation. Realize, however,
that some parents will not be as receptive as
others in your efforts. Nonetheless, parental
involvement can make a huge difference in
many cases. 

9.  Create a Behavior Management Plan for Ongoing
Issues
If you have a student who is often
confrontational, you need to call together a
parent-teacher conference to deal with the
situation. Include administration and
guidance if you feel it is necessary. Together,
you can create a plan for dealing with the
student and possibly helping them with any
possible anger management issues.

10.  Talk With the Student at a Later Time
A day or two after the situation has been
resolved, pull the student involved aside and
discuss the situation with them calmly. Use
this to try and determine what the trigger
was that caused the problem in the first
place. This is also a great time to try and give
the student ideas of other ways to deal with
the situation that they might be able to use
in the future.

11.  Treat Each Student as an Individual
Realize that what works with one student
might not work with another. For example,
you might find that one student responds
particularly well to humor while another
might get angry when you try to make light
of the situation.

12.  Treat Each Student as an Individual
Realize that what works with one
student might not work with another.
For example, you might find that one
student responds particularly well to
humor while another might get angry
when you try to make light of the
situation.

13. Do Not Goad a Student
While this might seem obvious, it is a sad fact that
some teachers enjoy goading their students. Do
not be one of those teachers. Spend your time
focusing on what's best for each student and move
beyond any petty feelings you might have about
past classroom confrontations and situations.
While you might privately dislike a student, you
should never allow this to show in any way.

14. THANK
YOU