The problem is the official stance of public school is to never ever allow the student/parent to change their class once it starts.
My experience with 20+ years of kids in public school is you have to find an angle where the teacher or principal thinks it is in their best interest to move the child from the class. The moment you make it about the child the knee-jerk response will be NO.
Perhaps the parents can ask for a private meeting and explain to the principal that you are very very concerned for the teacher. The parents can explain that their daughter is very dramatic and has a track record of making accusations that may not be founded in truth. You can hint that the teacher may remind her of someone who hurt her previously.
As parents you understand the nature that sexual accusations are very hard to disprove and that you are so concerned for this teacher’s career that you want to warn the school so they can protect themselves. Your daughter has indicated that the teacher makes her uncomfortable and you fear that your daughter may make public accusations. Suggest counseling for your daughter...they love counseling. Suggest meetings to clear the air with the teacher, parents, etc. However its is proposed, it must be all about the teacher and not the child.
If you focus on what is best for the teacher they will likely find a way to remove her as a threat. If you focus on her best interests then you will always loose in this context. They cannot have parents running the school on behalf of their children. It sets the wrong precedent. They must perceive that they are in control.
Expanding on the counseling idea. Schools do offer counseling. Your niece needs counseling to stay in this class. Counseling by the school will serve multiple purposes. It establishes a great paper trail, it increases their costs and it creates an internal person who will have an obligation to your niece as well as the school.
If they do not offer counseling willing, the next step is to qualify this emotional feeling of your niece as a section 504 issue. Real or perceived, she has an emotional problem that is interfering with her ability to obtain an education. If you can get a family DR to acknowledge her anxiety and to recommend counseling you will have gold standard for 504.
http://articles.familylobby.com/600-section-504-in-education-—can-it-benefit-you.htm
You are exactly right.
When our son was in middle school, his math teacher, an older woman, was having serious health issues, neither understood nor appreciated by the students, who were becoming as hostile as the teacher.
I called her and she stiffly spoke to me UNTIL I said, "I understand you're having trouble with our son. What can I do to help?"
She'd never had a parent ask that question, and proceeded to tell me of her health issues, etc., and she was even receptive to my comments about our son's frustration at not getting his questions answered, etc.
She actually ended up raising his grade because HIS attitude changed!
It's tricky politics, dealing with teachers. I 100% agree with you, Raycpa, that any interaction with them MUST have the appearance of what's most helpful to the teacher. Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn speaks of this in his fabulous book, "Confessions of a Medical Heretic."