Traditionally, the discussion around bullying in schools has revolved around its impact on students and a school's duty of care to develop a strategy to prevent or at least minimise it.

But as a recent impromptu School Governance survey found, the impact of bullying on teachers and school staff is seen as the major concern in relation to work, health and safety compliance.

Aside from the risk of bullying among staff or from students, the threat and acts of violence against teachers from parents is a growing problem.

A story in the Fairfax Media this week cited a survey that found more than 80% of teachers and school staff said they had been bullied by parents as well as by principals, executives, colleagues and students.

Another university study found that school principals alone were five times more likely to face threats of violence and seven times more likely to face physical violence than the general population.

In response to what is perceived as a growing problem, there have been calls for state governments to better protect school staff from abusive parents. The Victorian Government is reportedly already drafting new parent-principal agreements in a bid to curb abusive behaviour from parents and there have been calls for better security in schools to protect staff.

The first step every school needs to take is to acknowledge the risk of abuse from parents as a key workplace hazard in it's WHS policies and procedures.

To minimise the potential harm to staff from abusive or violent parents, like its other bullying policies, a school will need to articulate what can be interpreted as acts of bullying from parents. As with students and staff, a school will need to communicate its policy to parents as to the appropriate standards of behaviour required from them.

Such a policy may include:

• Steps to explain to parents and staff their obligations under the policy.
• Training, to ensure staff understand what constitutes bullying, and the options available to them.
• A formal complaints process, where staff can report cases of abuse or acts of violence from parents.
• A clear statement that staff who report parents are not victimised.
• Processes to ensure complaints are handled confidentially and fairly.