I'm a first-year teacher in a school with AWFUL admin and serious behavior issues. The teachers who have been there forever seem to think it's normal and just don't expect better behavior from the kids. I'm a technology specialist teaching pre-k through 6th as a 23 year old first year teacher. Split between both of my sites I see approximately 600 kids a week, so I don't even know names yet halfway through the year.

I took 2 first-grade boys to the office for hitting and kicking other students at recess (to the point of a visible mark on one). The office had 3 kids already there, told me it was too full and I needed to just take the coys back to the cafeteria. Told me to write up an email to the dean and the classroom teacher. Then she turned to the students and said to them "but if this happens again we're going to have to tell Dr. Principal."

The kids are treated like they're victims when they're put in the office. They know they can get away anything.

I work for two schools, I co-teach at my second. My coteacher was out and we had a sub in the room. A first grader hit me in the stomach, shoved a swivel chair at me, hit me in the upper thigh twice, threw a box of markers at me, and tried to use a traffic cone as a battering ram to hit me with. The sub just watched this happen until I explicitly told her to alert the office we needed support.

The dean walks in and says "okay keep doing your things I'm gonna watch and see what happens." I've never felt so unsupported. It turns out when the sun called she told the office the student was climbing on tables and crawling underneath tables. Didn't mention that he had hit me numerous times with a variety of objects.

I went to the dean as soon as I found out and explained what actually happened. She said that because I'm a traveling teacher, the student can't build a relationship with me because he never sees me in the hallways. But he would NEVER hit one of their teachers.

The next school day he DID hit another teacher, and all of a sudden they're asking me to email his mom about what happened. It only mattered once it happened to someone else.

I'm asking because I don't know who to ask and I just don't have the experience to know, what am I supposed to do when a pre-schooler, kindergartener, or first-grader hits me? I never felt in danger but I am so sick of the behavior I have to put up with. I'm locked into my contract for the next 3 years.