North East and Teesside school leaders say they won't tolerate abuse
School leaders are suffering with anxiety, depression and panic attacks
Last updated 1st May 2025
We are hearing that school leaders across the North East and Teesside are being threatened with murder by some parents, with calls that it will not be tolerated.
The National Association of Headteachers say more than four in five across England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been verbally or physically abused - leaving them suffering with anxiety, depression and panic attacks.
Debra Walker is the North East branch secretary there and also the chief executive of Iris Learning Trust, which runs schools in Sunderland and Middlesbrough.
She spearheaded the 'No Excuse for Abuse' campaign and said: "I was threatened. I was threatened with murder over the phone. "I'm going to come down and murder you." That was over attendance I believe.
"A family had misinterpreted a professional report from a psychologist and she was threatening to hit me and attack me and we had to call the police. I once was actually physically assaulted by a parent once too.
"Colleagues are frightened to open emails, worried about what's going to be said about them, dreading the phone ringing in case somebody's standing in reception threatening and you know 'I'm going to have your job. You're no good.' And then what happens is, it starts to erode your confidence. It impacts on your choice making.
"What we're saying is you can't come and shout and scream at us, or start a Facebook hate campaign or start trolling on social media because you're not getting what you want.
"The reason why nobody talks about it is that you feel a little bit of shame or embarrassment that you've been involved in an altercation or an incident and so some leaders have said 'well, it's just part of the job. What can you do?' And I said 'do you know what? It's not part of the job. We're not fair game for anybody who wants to come and vent their frustrations to us.'
"You're not immune to it no matter which school you're in, where you're leading, you're not immune to parents demanding, shouting, accusing, threatening. It's part and parcel of what leadership is.
"When something like that happens to you it's a trauma. And when anything happens to you like that, you need time to compose yourself. I've sat in my office and had some tears and had to have a cup of tea and pull myself together and not let it overwhelm me, but that's quite difficult."
She added that parents can be frustrated at small trival things, which leads to abuse: "A lost coat, a lost swimming kit, a lost water bottle, a lost reading book where for some that seems to be our fault, and the fact that you're tackling a parent on it causes them to become incredibly angry and upset very quickly."
No Excuse for Abuse campaign
More than four in five (82%) school leaders say they have been abused by parents in the past year, a survey has revealed.
The poll by school leaders’ union NAHT of more than 1,600 of its members, revealed shocking examples of head teachers and other senior leaders being verbally and physical abused.
Verbal abuse was the most common form of abuse suffered, with 85% of school leaders saying they had experienced this in the past year. This was followed by threatening behaviour (68%), online abuse (46%) and discriminatory language (22%), including use of racist, sexist or homophobic terms. One in 10 (10%) suffered physical violence.
The survey exposed widespread reports of trolling on social media and in parent groups on Facebook and WhatsApp - as well as appalling instances of hate campaigns and harassment and intimidation.
Some school leaders said the abuse had made their lives a misery to the extent that they had considered quitting the profession they love. It has left some suffering anxiety, depression and panic attacks.
Nearly nine in 10 (86%) said abuse from parents had increased in the last three years, with almost four in 10 (37%) of those saying it had ‘greatly’ increased. Only one percent said abuse had decreased.
More than a third (35%) of school leaders said they typically experienced abuse from parents every month, with 16% saying this happened weekly.
One senior leader told how ‘malicious and vexatious complaints made me want to leave my job and made me ill’.
Another, whose staff had to deal with repeated complaints which included nasty personal comments, said: ‘I felt very low and dreaded opening my emails…. Another member of the team said they might have to resign to avoid reading the emails’.
Paul Whiteman, NAHT’s general secretary, said: “The vast majority of parents are very supportive of schools and in most cases the relationship between school and home is really positive. However, in recent years we have heard of a worrying increase in the amount of abuse school leaders are experiencing. Some of the stories we are hearing about the appalling abuse leaders and their staff are suffering from parents are almost beyond belief.
“These are dedicated professionals, who work hard day in day out to deliver a first-rate education for children in often trying circumstances. No-one should have to suffer this sort of abuse in their place of work.
“It causes enormous distress for school leaders, their staff, and sometimes pupils, and is even contributing to decisions by good people to leave the profession at a time schools are facing a severe recruitment and retention crisis - directly affecting the quality of education children receive.
“Where parents have concerns, worries or complaints, they of course should be able to raise these with the school, but this has to be done in a respectful manner. Put simply, whatever the situation, there is never an excuse for abuse.
“This also shows the importance of government treating the profession with the respect it deserves – too often teachers and leaders were publicly criticised and talked down to under previous administrations, sending completely the wrong signal.”
NAHT says this kind of abusive behaviour is not tolerated in other industries and is calling for the government to send a clear signal to parents that it is unacceptable in schools.
It also wants ministers to conduct an urgent review of complaints procedures to deter vexatious use of the existing system by parents which can involve complaints being lodged with multiple agencies - sometimes before school processes have been exhausted.
The union says its findings demonstrate the importance of its cross-nation No Excuse for Abuse campaign.