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AIBU?

To think maybe these school kids should have been supervised more closely?

76 replies

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 22:59

Dunno, maybe IABU but am a bit shaken up by this.

Was out walking in a forest with the dog and pass a group of approx 40 school kids out with their teachers all on mountain bikes. I'm going in the opposite direction on the forest track.

About a mile down the track one of these kids who has turned round and come back in the same direction im going in passes me going way too fast. Came round a big bend and lost it - major crash. He's in the grass opposite me and I realise he's badly hurt as he sat up and started screaming he was spraying blood out his face. Properly spraying.

There was another kid just behind him who said she would go "and find Miss". She disappears back up the hill.

I'm left for a good ten minutes with this kid who is pouring blood, drifting in and out of concisousness and totally in shock after making some fairly large puncture holes in himself and taking most of the skin off his face.

I just keep thinking if I hadn't happened to be there it would have been awful for those kids, they were Year 8. Not a busy forest either, I passed one other person on a six mile walk so total chance there was someone there.

Just seems the teacher was a long way away for what is a moderately dangerous activity......especially at the speed he was going at.

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echt · 09/07/2015 23:03

How many teachers were there? With forty kids on a track, it would be hard for all of them to be always in sight.

So what happened afterwards?

Smartiepants79 · 09/07/2015 23:04

40 kids? On mountain bikes? Really?
How many staff where there?
What did the teacher say when she turned up? Why was he going in the opposite direction to all the others?
All sounds very odd.
If she was really 10 minutes away by bike then, yes the child was unsupervised and someone is going to get a serious bollocking.
I've never heard of a group of children that size being taken out on an activity like that before.

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:08

I dunno how many teachers there were. When the one teacher turned up she said she'd turned back with some of the kids who were struggling. So she was the only teacher with those kids coming back but I don't know how many kids turned back.

I just think if they'd been better supervised the accident might not have happened as if Id been a teacher Id have told them to slow down. Two other kids crashed out badly on the same bend just before the teacher got there!

He was walking wounded rather than needing an ambulance so he walked back down the road with his teacher.

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noblegiraffe · 09/07/2015 23:10

That sounds horrible, well done for looking after the poor child. Was an ambulance called?

Do you know it was ten minutes or did it just feel like ten minutes?

Yes the teachers should have been supervising more closely. This sort of end of term activity isn't always the best organised though.

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:12

Give or take a couple I would say there were definitly around 40 kids. When they passed me they were all pushing their bikes up a steep bit of track. I stood to the side of the track holding the dog as they passed and said hi to quite a lot of them so was there for some time watching them.

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ravenAK · 09/07/2015 23:15

Not usual, no. Generally an activity like that is at least 1:10 ratio & close supervision. In smaller groups so 40 kids should = 4 x group of 10 kids, one staff member, separate from other groups.

Is it possible your lad & his friend were awol from the main group?

I'd imagine someone will get a massive bollocking. Either very much deservedly, or just because they were running a trip, an incident happened, & someone on the staff must be seen to be pegged out to dry over it.

It'll be one more teacher who doesn't sign up for the next extra-curricular thing that then doesn't happen because it can't be staffed.

Note I'm not for a moment saying that it might not be teaching staff making an almighty cock up over supervision - it could well be.

MayPolist · 09/07/2015 23:16

I think boys of 13 are out on bikes with their friends all the time without adult supervision.If you hadn't been there I don't really see the situation would have been any different.You didn't administer first aid or call for help.
He got up and walked off at the end, so he couldn't have been that badly hurt where was the blood spraying from? I thought blood only sprayed from main arteries in which case he would have bled to death surely

sugar21 · 09/07/2015 23:17

So what did the boy fall on to cause such serious injuries that he was spraying blood and taking most of the skin from his face?

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:18

It was actually 9 mins. When he crashed Id actually just checked my watch to see if it was lunch time yet and I looked at the time again as I started walking down the track.

I think the plan was to patch him up when they got to a first aid kit. By the time the teacher got there he didn't look as bad as most of the bleeding had stopped. He'd got a gaping hole halfway up his nose and also in his philtrum. Don't think he'd actually banged his head. I guess it was more shock and semi fainting which was making him woozy/passing out.

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VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:20

sugar he landed face down on a gravel track and was going at such a speed that he carried on face down along the track for some distance.

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VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:23

The blood was spraying when he tried to talk from various cuts inside his mouth. He had a brace which I think slammed into his gums and his mouth was awash with blood, also blood spraying out his nose as he sat up. I put pressure on everything I could, stopped his nose bleed and generally kept him calm.

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Kitsandkids · 09/07/2015 23:24

I dunno, they're Year 8, so all more or less 13 by now. I think it's fair enough for the teacher to let them have a bit of an explore of the area without her staying right by them, particularly if they were riding in twos or small groups rather than completely alone.

Plus their parents could very well have had to sign a consent form saying 'children will be accompanied by a teacher but may be out of sight of the teacher whilst riding their bikes.'

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:28

I guess. I suppose when dd was a similar age and went abroad they were allowed around Paris in small groups in their own. But in a way I feel Paris is safer than mountain biking in a forest!

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ltk · 09/07/2015 23:29

A 13 yo did something stupid on a bike and got hurt. I don't think the teaching staff are at fault.

missingmumxox · 09/07/2015 23:35

How long did the ambulance you must have called given the gushing blood take to arrive?

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:38

missingmum why don't you read the thread dear rather than trying to be snippy for no reason.

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PurpleSwift · 09/07/2015 23:42

I think yabu. I imagine plenty of 13 year olds go out on their bike without adult supervision. These things happen. Hopefully next time they'll not go so quick either.

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:44

I probably am being unreasonable. I bet he will be more cautious next time he's biking.

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MrsHathaway · 09/07/2015 23:50

I don't really understand why in that situation there wasn't a teacher at the back - one at the front, one at the back, and the other two (say) spread out a bit. That's how any procession of children I've ever been involved in has looked, whether it's walking y2 down a quiet road or spread out on a plane.

I agree with pps that the trip is very unlikely to be repeated!

echt · 09/07/2015 23:54

With possibly 40 kids there might have only been two teachers. Every school I've ever taught in tries to cut the supervision to the legal lower limit. One of them could well have been at the front, but a child speeding downhill on a bike could get a long way ahead very quickly.

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:56

Only one teacher came down with the kids who'd given up.

I walked down to the road with the teacher and this boy and never saw another teacher until we got down to the bottom where there was one waiting with other kids.

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VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 23:58

I think it would be a shame if the trip wasn't repeated as I'm sure apart from accidents it was fun. Must be a flipping nightmare trying to organise all the activities though.

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BarbarianMum · 10/07/2015 00:21

I think by Y8 most kids will be used to biking unsupervised. Certainly in our local woods teens use the downhill bike tracks without adults being around.

So yes I do think that you are being a little U but I can see why.

ouryve · 10/07/2015 00:22

Hell, I'd want some bloody good staff ratios with so many kids doing such a high risk activity!

ouryve · 10/07/2015 00:28

Yes, kids do that sort of thing and make the same stupid mistakes in their own time, but when there's a presumption of in loco parentis, the risks taken need to be much smaller. Had the collision knocked the boy unconscious knocked teeth out etc, you can be sure that something unpleasant would happen in the way of investigation and consequences for the school.

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