How would you handle a situation where a student raises concerns about discriminatory behavior by a teacher?

Listen to the child with rapt attention, and do not interfere until he or she is done. Do not use a judgmental or accusing tone. You do not have any proof the child is lying, and to ensure their safety, unless proven otherwise, they are right.  Make sure you show compassion and understanding, and do not use threatening words. Otherwise, the child may not be able to share everything, and if the incident is true, it will keep repeating, which will be harmful for other children and your school.

Addressing concerns of discriminatory behavior by a teacher requires a careful and thorough approach to ensure the student's well-being and uphold equity in the educational environment. Listening attentively to the student's experiences and documenting details are crucial first steps. Conducting a fair and impartial investigation, involving relevant stakeholders, and taking prompt action based on findings are essential to addressing the issue effectively. Throughout the process, providing support and reassurance to the student is paramount, ensuring they feel heard, respected, and safe within the school community.

Once all information about the incident has been gathered, review all aspects of the incident, noting teacher/student interaction as reported. As a first step, share the student's report with the school's principal. It's important to demonstrate your neutrality by not offering any personal opinion regarding what you know about the student or the teacher, outside the case being discussed. The school counselor may be involved if there is a perceived need to move the student to a different class immediately, especially if the student said, "I can't stay in that class." In almost all such cases, prepare for parental reaction, even as the matter is being investigated. Let your principal check on any legal issues with the district.

A plan of action in this situation may be: 1. Share student's complaint with the principal immediately. 2. Involve counselor if there is an immediate need to move student to another class. Move student the same day. 3. Communicate procedure to student-same day. 4. Meet with teacher to share report. Mention that as a first step, student will move to another class pending result of investigation. Hear what happened from teacher's viewpoint. Share school policy on this issue with teacher-same day. 5. Notify the parent of the situation. Share steps being taken and reassure parent of child's safety at school-same day. 6. Depending on the outcome of the investigation involve school counseling services in training staff to prevent such incidents.

The teacher must be notified, in a non-threatening way, and as soon as possible once the staff to whom the student reported the incident has informed the principal. Because of the sensitivity of the issue, which implies questions about the teacher's professionalism, the teacher must be treated with respect even in phrasing the allegation. In a few such meetings that I have attended, the teachers involved seemed unaware of the behavior until I created scenarios for them to consider. They cooperated fully with the investigation process. Most of them adopted a change in behavior.

Now comes the tricky part - figuring out what to do next. Depending on what I found, it could be anything from running some extra training sessions for the staff to maybe even having to write someone up. But hey, this is also a chance to make things even better here at school. We can use this as a springboard to really emphasize how much we value everyone feeling welcome and respected. By putting some new things in place, we can not only deal with what happened this time, but stop anything similar from happening again in the future. That's definitely the goal!

Ongoing support is provided by having the school counselor check in with the affected student every two weeks after making it clear that the student can see the counselor or a school administrator immediately should a similar incident be experienced. The school's administration can add a training segment on awareness of behavior that might be discriminatory to one of the school's in-service workshops for teachers and staff. This can help make teachers aware of discriminatory verbal and nonverbal behavior and ensure a harmonious learning environment for students. Monitoring interactions between students and teachers can help ascertain if the changes that were implemented are making all students feel like they belong in the school.

From my experience, it is very important to handle cases like this with a lot of refinement and discretion—keeping information within the boundaries of the parties involved. You don't want it to become part of school gossip.