what an idiot

[Claw75]

My uncle is a senior school teacher, and a few years ago was working in a pretty rough school in Southwark.  He was repeatedly verbally and physically abused, including being spat at and being punched by a pupil, yet there was no support mechanism for teachers in place to enable them to deal effectively with that kind of behaviour, and it pretty much went unpunished.  In the end, he had enough, and moved to the states where he now teaches at a private catholic school.  He says it's like a different world, the kids are well behaved, respectful and want to learn and he now gets lots out of his vocation. (although I accept that is probably more down to the type of school than the geography).

It's a shame, because he's a great teacher, and one that has been lost to the British education system because teachers aren't given the tools to properly teach and discpline children over here.

This story is very sad from every angle, for the child and his family, for the teacher and his, and that things had been allowed to get to this point without anything being done to tackle the surrounding problems.  I hope that lessons will be learned.

[Claw75]

its easy to read the story and say "what a twat" but to flip and do this, the guy is clearly no longer mentally stable.

whether this is the case or not, everyone, no matter how mentally stable or usually placid, will have their tipping point I think.  In situations like this the key is ensuring that everyone can work together to ensure that teachers don't get pushed past that point.  We don't know all the details in this case, but I'd be surprised if other people connected with the school were unaware of the issues before this unfortunate incident came to pass. 

[G1BTW]

its easy to read the story and say "what a twat" but to flip and do this, the guy is clearly no longer mentally stable.

whether this is the case or not, everyone, no matter how mentally stable or usually placid, will have their tipping point I think.  In situations like this the key is ensuring that everyone can work together to ensure that teachers don't get pushed past that point.  We don't know all the details in this case, but I'd be surprised if other people connected with the school were unaware of the issues before this unfortunate incident came to pass.  

good posts. Maybe there will be litigation against the school in this instance for letting a known vulnerable be re-exposed to this situation. Imagine someone like a doctor or a ticket inspector were regularly exposed to this kind of thing, the courts would be full of compensation cases.
I was reminiscing with my ma recently about an old friend, who was a teacher at my primary school. Much admired by all, my mum pointed out. And she was, a talented woman, who rose fast within her profession. Ma was a bit shocked when I pointed out that she had a temper from hell and would be fantastically violent to kids in assembly. I remember some kid, about 10 was playing up, she just dragged him up to the front, by his hair, and shook the living daylights out of him. Got me thinking about all of my schooling lol, it was actually littered with violent incidents of this kind. I once stepped out of line in primary school, was asked to come to the front by the teacher, who removed a large kind of solid leather covered weapon from his jacket, and proceeded to smash it as hard as he could into the palms of my hands. I was 11 ffs, committed a minor offence, and yet routine acts of violence to kids like this were perfectly permissable, and quite commonplace. We seem to have turned a corner as a society and hopefully look back on this kind of thing with rightful horror. Maybe the teacher in question was brought up in such a culture, just reached for a weight instead of a ferula.
Not really making a point I guess, just amuses me how it was once permissable and now we would imprison these people. I often feel like suing the bastards, but I guess the law was on their side at the time.

[Claw75]

its easy to read the story and say "what a twat" but to flip and do this, the guy is clearly no longer mentally stable.

whether this is the case or not, everyone, no matter how mentally stable or usually placid, will have their tipping point I think.  In situations like this the key is ensuring that everyone can work together to ensure that teachers don't get pushed past that point.  We don't know all the details in this case, but I'd be surprised if other people connected with the school were unaware of the issues before this unfortunate incident came to pass. 

good posts. Maybe there will be litigation against the school in this instance for letting a known vulnerable be re-exposed to this situation. Imagine someone like a doctor or a ticket inspector were regularly exposed to this kind of thing, the courts would be full of compensation cases.   

yep that's one way of looking at it.  The other (more preferable way to my mind) would be to ensure that the environment in which the teacher was placed was more controlled than it obviously was and that the kids learned to behave themselves and not treat teachers in the manner in which it appears they were.

Why an otherwise talented teacher should be prevented from doing a good job because a bunch of kids can't be taught how to properly behave themselves and respect other human beings does not seem to me to be addressing the real problem.

[bolt pp]

he's been charged with attempted murder tonight,  he hasnt been sectioned, so it seems he just got pissed off and decided to smash a kids head in.

plenty people get pissed off, bullied, tormented and teased everyday, they dont go around trying to kill kids.

this makes the guy a prick IMO.

[Claw75]

he's been charged with attempted murder tonight

quite surprised to read that, I thought there had to be some element of pre-meditation for a murder or attempted murder charge to be applied.  Or am I just making that up in my head?

[bolt pp]

he's been charged with attempted murder tonight

quite surprised to read that, I thought there had to be some element of pre-meditation for a murder or attempted murder charge to be applied.  Or am I just making that up in my head?

he dragged the kid in a headlock to the store room whilst making sure no one stopped him by fighting off other pupils whilst shouting: "someones going to die" then delibretly beat him round the head with a metal weight, sounds like he knew what he wanted to do.

I think you're thinking about it being a period of time inbetween the thought of doing it and carrying out the act? It doesnt make any difference, if someone called me a wanker in the street and i stabbed him to death instantly theres no difference(assuming i didnt fear for my own safety at the time) than if i went home thought about it all night and decided to kill him when i saw him next.

[G1BTW]

he's been charged with attempted murder tonight

quite surprised to read that, I thought there had to be some element of pre-meditation for a murder or attempted murder charge to be applied.  Or am I just making that up in my head?

Doesn't really need to be pre-meditation as far as I know, you can be choosing to recklessly ignore the fact that your actions are likely to lead to him becoming dead.
Did he intend to kill him? Well he allegedly intended to hit him over the head with a 2kg weight, which is an action most people would know could easily cause death.

[Acidmouse]

He wont go down for long, easy to get off with his stress, stroke and mental state..temp insanity easily.

[thetank]

I'd love to see some change, some legislation that helps teachers keep order in classrooms, gives them a bit of support.

Would be a little worried if it happens because of this incident though. Kinda sends the wrong message for people in any field who want things to change.

[  ] Write letter to MP
[  ] Lobby the government.
[  ] Muster popular support amongst colleagues
[  ] Muster popular support amongst public
[  ] Make a website/Start a petition
[  ] Contact newspaper
[  ] Contact your Union
[  ] Industrial action
[ x ] Whack a kid in the head with a bit of metal.

Way the world works I guess. Nobody wants to talk about issues that effect the quality of our kid's education normally, just when sexy violence is involved.

[bolt pp]

more coming? 

[thetank]

I'm done

[boldie]

It's a crying shame that something like this happened IMO...but seriously..a guy talking to "the voices in his head" in the corridor should not be teaching...and pestering him is also probably a bad idea.









As is corporal punishment.

[sovietsong]

when i was about 12 a kid two years above me beat up a teacher in a corridor for bumping into him, he punched him to the ground then kicked the teacher in the head before walking away he spat on him.  His punishment - suspension from school and a police caution...

[bolt pp]

when i was about 12 a kid two years above me beat up a teacher in a corridor for bumping into him, he punched him to the ground then kicked the teacher in the head before walking away he spat on him.  His punishment - suspension from school and a police caution...

and did the kid get in trouble?