Child Abuse

Each day more than three children are abused by their teachers. Abuse of pupils in schools by teachers may be a social problem locally and there need to be changes to overcome this problem. Teachers play versatile roles within schools. As such, teachers are entrusted with authority, power, respect and pupils look up to teachers for guidance and assistance. However, some teachers abuse their roles and abuse their pupils. Teachers in primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago may maltreat their pupils physically, verbally and emotionally without even realising that they are inflicting child abuse.

According to Childline Trinidad and Tobago (2010) Physical abuse is when parents or caregivers do harmful things to children even when they did not do anything wrong. Many teachers use corporal punishment as a form of discipline. Corporal Punishment is defined by UNICEF (n.d.) as the use of physical force causing pain, but not wounds as a means of discipline. Likewise, teachers may administer corporal punishment to their learners to teach them a lesson but at the same time lose their temper and hit or beat a learner and this may be considered physical abuse because they are unaware to the extent that the force they are using may cause injury. For instance, in a local newspaper there was a report which stated a principal was charged with assaulting two boys at her school because she was using abusive means to teach them a lesson. This shows the extent in which what a teacher may consider discipline may in fact be physical child abuse. Children that are subjected to constant physical reprimanding suffer from a host of mental issues such as depression and stress as a result. Therefore if teachers stopped being aggressive towards their students and think about their actions before applying them, there would be no physical abuse taking place in schools.

Secondly, teachers may abuse their pupils verbally. In verbally abusive situations, words are used to attack, control and inflict harm on another person. Many teachers look for an alternative to corporal punishment and sometimes instead of disciplining a student and using positive reinforcements, they in turn verbally abuse their pupils. Teachers may not realise that constant yelling at children is considered verbal abuse and may scream at children and call them names such as 'stupid', 'dumb', 'won't go anywhere in life' and 'good for nothing'. Ignorance plays an important part of verbal abuse and some teachers may simply have anger management problems and not know how to interact with pupils when they become angry. For instance teachers may also use derogatory language when relating to pupils.