“Parents Could Sue Us at Any Time”: A Teacher Speaks Out

Hi everyone, we recently posted a story about two students who were kicked out of school after making a white power gesture during a class trip to the former Auschwitz concentration camp. Their parents took legal action against the expulsion, and we asked what the teenagers would actually learn from all this…

Johanna, a teacher, reached out to us afterward. Her message: these days, lots of parents call a lawyer right away. So we asked her about it.

Johanna, you've been a teacher for 20 years. Where do you teach, and why did you choose this profession?

I teach at a Realschule, one of the secondary school types in Germany, covering fifth through tenth grade. I teach German and math. Like most teachers, I went into the job because I wanted to work with kids and teens, walk with them for part of their way into adulthood, and do a better job than some of my own teachers did.

You responded to our post about parents who went to court over their kids' expulsion. You wrote to us that parents now fight almost everything legally. Can you give us a few examples?

Grades are the classic example. They're a constant source of arguments. More and more often, parents send letters straight to the principal or even the school district office before they've talked to the teacher, and they threaten or announce legal action.

Parents also contest consequences for misbehavior. One father threatened legal action because his son was supposed to pick up trash on the schoolyard along with some other kids. One couple filed a formal objection when their child was given detention.

A lot of things are off the table from the start, because administrators worry about leaving the school open to a lawsuit. For example, we're no longer allowed to take a phone away and hold on to it until the end of the school day if a student used it in class, the way we used to.

On top of that, everything has to be documented in writing, and in as much detail as possible, so that you can defend yourself legally at any time if there's a lawsuit or a formal objection. The number one rule for school administrators is to be “legally in the clear.” It's exhausting.

Do you sometimes feel that parents and teachers aren't pulling in the same direction anymore?

Unfortunately, that's happening more and more. On one hand, especially at our school, we have parents who don't show up to parent-teacher nights, scheduled meetings, or hearings at all, and who have no interest in working with us.

For example, I once called a student's home because she'd repeatedly skipped her homework and was seriously disrupting class. Her mom felt that fixing the problem was my job, since it happened during school hours, and she had no interest in looking for causes or solutions together. That's not a dramatic example, but of course it affects how teachers and parents work together. It also shows the student that what I say as her teacher, and how she behaves at school, doesn't matter to her parents. That in turn weakens my position.

On the other hand, there are also parents who “fight” for their kids no matter what, even when the child clearly behaved badly (for example, hurt another child or was disrespectful). Instead of admitting that their child did something wrong and making clear that the consequences are justified, they try to head off or water down the consequences, or excuse the behavior altogether and blame someone else.

How would you like communication and the relationship between school and parents to look?

Honestly, it's pretty simple: open, honest, and based on trust. We're not opponents, we're partners, and we basically want the same thing: for students to learn in an atmosphere that makes learning possible. One without fear, with trust, without violence, with respect, and with fairness on all sides. Fortunately, there are also plenty of parents we work with beautifully.

Do you generally feel that students are more confident today and push their limits more?

Absolutely. Students often don't just accept clear instructions and rules anymore. They want to discuss, negotiate, and test them. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it stays within reason.

What causes me a lot more problems in my daily work is the growing disrespect teachers face.

What do you personally do when there's been a conflict at school, like a fight?

To sort out the conflict, I talk with the students involved, their parents, the homeroom teacher, and the administration. That happens during breaks, free periods, and in the afternoons. I also talk with colleagues to get their take on what happened or to find out if there's a backstory. We can also bring in the school social worker. Depending on how the situation looks and how serious the conflict was, there might be a meeting of all the class's teachers, a formal hearing, a roundtable, and so on, both to resolve the conflict and to decide on consequences.

Personally, I talk a lot with colleagues to process situations like this and to get encouragement or new ideas.

Do you think the demands on teachers are higher today than they were a few years ago?

Definitely. Students' lives are very different from what they were a few years ago. That brings new challenges, especially because the school system itself hasn't really changed much.

Many students can't focus on one thing or sit still for long stretches anymore. Some also have limited language skills. Behavioral problems and willingness to use violence have increased, too.

As teachers, we have to do a lot of parenting, and we're supposed to catch everything that goes wrong at home or in society. New things keep getting added (digital media and AI, for example) without anything else being taken off our plates, without the equipment to do it, and without enough training for us.

We have to document more and we're expected to teach in a differentiated, individualized way, but we have 25 to 30 students in a class.

What would you wish for in your job as a teacher?

First, smaller classes, so we can do justice to how different the students are and actually teach well. Quiet kids in particular often get too little attention, and that's not fair.

What I'd love most is a complete overhaul of this broken school system. There are lots of well-known voices, like Bob Blume, who never get tired of calling out what's wrong and offering concrete ideas for improvement.

The problems are known, everyone is unhappy, and still nothing happens. Most teachers are dedicated, better than their reputation, and still really like the job and put their hearts into it despite the circumstances. For that to stay true, and for young people to keep choosing this great profession, something has to change.