In our district there are plenty of administrators and teachers who are downputting to parents and students. Parents do need to stand their ground but it's often very very tough. We had a 2nd grade teacher who was at times mean to DS and another very smart kid in the classroom. DS was somewhat hurt; but the other kid was so afraid of the teacher that his mom was very concerned. It also depends on each kid's resilience. DS was just fine come third grade with a much more understanding teacher. It took the other kid much longer to recover his self esteem (according to his mom).