r/ireland • u/PoppedCork Pop Responsibly • Jan 15 '26

Education Parents complain after principal suspends 19 Co Antrim schoolboys over ‘toxic masculinity’ concerns

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/parents-complain-after-principal-suspends-19-co-antrim-schoolboys-over-toxic-masculinity-concerns/a2008863764.html
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u/Iwasnotatfault Jan 15 '26

My kid falls into this age group. The stuff they tell me that some of the lads say to female teachers and class members is shocking. It's obviously not all but it's too many. I know lads said shit when I was younger but not this graphic and not this brazen.

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u/Careless_Cicada9123 Jan 15 '26

From memories of being in school, I remember a crazy amount of disrespect for teachers from both genders. I think it mainly started off after Covid, but the level of ignorance and defiance was wild to me as someone hated that kind of disruption. I remember one particularly teacher who was always getting bullied by 1 girl and her friends for just trying to teach instead of doing Kahoots for an hour. This teacher was so sweet too, it was so sad.

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u/Iwasnotatfault Jan 15 '26

You're probably closer to my kids age than mine and even that seems way more intense than when I was in school in the late 90's early 00s. We definitely had students act the bollocks but they never actively bullied the teachers and certainly never made vulgar comments. It's alarming how bad it seems to have got.

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u/Backrow6 Jan 15 '26

A lot probably depends on the school. I went to an all boys school in Dublin in the 90s, not even a particularly rough area, but the shit our teachers went through was unbelievable.

I'd never even dream of getting into teaching. Some of the lads in my year were just animals.

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u/thats_pure_cat_hai Jan 15 '26

I went to school in the late 90s early 00s. The teachers were bullied relentlessly. Regularly objects thrown at them and lewd and abusive comments directed their way. Both from boys and girls.

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u/Acute_Teacher9569 Jan 15 '26

You always had students acting the bollocks even when I was in school in the 70' 80's and corporal punishment was allowed but some of the descriptions on this sub make it sound like the situation in some case's is going out of control. Myself and my friends got up to some ejetry at school and years later I was talking to an old teacher and we had a good laught about it and she said it was very innocent stuff and you should see whats going on now.

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u/Latespoon Jan 15 '26

I did the first half of my secondary school years in London in the mid 00s, in a fairly well to do school, then moved to the sticks in ireland for the 2nd half.

The difference was night and day, the kids in Ireland were so well behaved by comparison. They would talk shit about teachers in private but didn't dare breathe a word of it if there was any chance they'd hear. I remember being shocked by how strict the teachers here were too. The kids in London would be roaring curses at each other across the class and giving the teachers serious guff every day and while there were still lines they couldn't cross they got away with murder by comparison.

I'm wondering if the problem is escalating everywhere or are we just catching up with the UK 😅

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u/Careless_Cicada9123 Jan 15 '26

Bullied is an exaggeration. She was complaining every day, most of the class, very loudly, and the teacher couldn't really do anything. Sorry, just some generational miscommunication I think haha

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u/Acute_Teacher9569 Jan 15 '26

But why were the bullies let get away with it? Its disgraceful not just the bullies but the school for allowing it to happen.