Not a Safe Place: How Teachers Become the First Trauma

This paper investigates how emotionally abusive teaching practices—often normalized under the guise of academic rigor or discipline—inflict lasting psychological harm on students. Drawing on firsthand data and personal testimony, it argues that many educators participate in or perpetuate systemic emotional violence, often unconsciously. It calls for a radical reevaluation of what it means to teach, centered on empathy, neurodiversity, and psychological safety.