2 minute read
MEA Contests
Handling Parent and Community Hostility
As COVID cases rise, and the stress of the pandemic continues, many teachers, education support professionals, faculty, principals and administrators have received letters, complaints, or been harassed by parents or vocal community members.
For the sake of our students, an educators’ job must be to calm the storm and bring balance to the angry rhetoric that is brought to schools and, in some cases, impacting local decisions about how to best educate Maine students.
To help bring balance and ensure members stay within the law, MEA’s General Counsel compiled the following guidelines to help manage these difficult situations. COVID-Related Hostility Towards Educators
As school boards around the state continue to enforce and sometimes change policies around COVID-19 and our schools, hostility around varying policies in some places has boiled over.
MEA recommends that teachers and ESPs who receive a hostile email, social media posting, or are physically confronted with COVID-19 or any issue do the following:
• De-escalate a physical interaction or encounter as much as possible by politely referring them to a building administrator.
• Take a copy of the email/letter/posting to your immediate supervisor as documentation. This is vital in showing the seriousness of your complaint and can be used in a district’s response to the parent or guardian.
• Ensure the administration is doing its job of protecting staff and students; ask what the district’s plan and policies are for reacting to threats and what public safety measures it has in place at school, on-campus events, or School Board meetings. Make sure the district has updated its written anti-bullying policy to include educators and employees.
• Do not reply to angry emails or social media posts without consulting with your administration and Union representative.
• Avoid commenting on any social media posts that deal with school related issues • Notify your Union representative immediately of the situation. It is important your Union knows of the situation so it can provide you with the best support and protection, if necessary.
When it comes to attacks on individuals or groups of members and their ability to do their job for students, MEA will defend our members under their collective bargaining agreements and, when necessary, in a court of law.
If members of the community send letters, emails, verbal demands for copies of curriculum, or there are allegations against educators for doing their jobs, MEA believes these items should be addressed by principals and other administrators rather than individual educators. The same principle is true if this type of attack or questioning occurs on social media-these should be addressed by administration and not the individual.
MEA advises members to notify your local association immediately of any of these actions by parents or community members allowing the local association to notify the administration. MEA believes the local association should strongly recommend, at a minimum, a written response from the administration be sent and followed up with a conversation if necessary.
Support Available
MEA Legal Services is ready for any job-related legal issues that arise. We will use all means necessary to protect members who are threatened for doing their jobs and standing up for safety and/or honesty in education. Requests for legal support should initiate through MEA UniServ directors. If you have any further questions, please contact your MEA UniServ Director.
Contact your MEA Field Representative using the MEA App or scan this QR Code:
