Teachers who have watched 'Adolescence'- what are your thoughts?

It wasn’t just boys in adolescence though was it. The murdered girl was bullying him.

I can’t believe what I’m reading with some of these comments.

teachers need to have control of the classroom not the pupils. Swear at a teacher: parents called in suspended
assault with a weapon - expelled and police matter. If a child can’t behave in school then the school isn’t the appropriate place for them.

shouting in the corridor : demerit

these places must be kept safe for other children. Teachers deserve and are entitled to respect.

I may be missing the point I don’t see how anyone can hold school responsible for what happened in the programme. Did they not see the interview with psychiatrist? The boy had serious mental health issues, an unhealthy relationship with women. He would have gone on and on possibly being a serial abuser of partners. He took no responsibility and lied without conscious.

Evil had gotten in somewhere along the line

The introduction of 'gentle parenting' and the ban on corporal punishment in schools and in families.

Three friends who are teachers with in excess of 50yrs teaching experience between them have all left teaching in the past 6 months citing pupil behaviour as the motivating factor. Several other friends have also quit teaching over the past few years citing the same reason. I don't blame any teacher for wanting out.

I'm a teacher in primary but can totally believe there are many, many secondaries where the behaviors portrayed in Adolescence is a reality.

Behavior even in primary, especially by male students, is becoming worse and worse. So is parental support. I can see some of our year 6 boys going this way very easily. Their parents will not be supportive of any sanctions if their support of our staff and attitude towards their children's behavior is anything to go by.

We have a huge societal problem here is the UK with lack of consideration and basic respect towards others.

Thank you both ({mention:Justapunta}@Justapunta). I assumed it was a turn of phrase being used to imply that the parents of the victim had contacted the police to pursue assault charges.

I was a bit outraged about the portrayal of comps… Mine are not in state schools but thought surely this is an exaggeration?

You see the press charges thing on many threads, I think a lot of people in England use this phrase wrongly

I'm the other end of the school system at the lower end of primary. I wonder if there's a connection between our education system being so stacked against nurturing and educating boys at such a young age and what you experience, OP.

I'm not a teacher, and went to school myself in the Jurassic era (only had to worry about passing dinosaurs, not other pupils or the internet), but if this is in any way an accurate portrayal of a contemporary school, that's very sad indeed.

Because it's the CPS that decide whether someone gets prosecuted not the victim

I'm confused, why would this indicate OP isn't from the UK?

I can think of one girl who was extremely violent and a transfer from another school. We were blessed by her because her mother was a former pupil and insisted that she wanted her child at our school...in spite of the fact that she had apparently hated it herself.

The girls committed an act of violence during lunch hour off the school premises, but got off with it because she was under 16. (The victim had a broken nose.)

Another time, she came in drunk to a mock/prelim and disrupted the entire exam. Mum threatened to sue the school for suggesting that the daughter was drunk...

The best that I could do was to ensure that she was given separate accommodation for the actual exams.

Then there was the plagiarism debacle, where the mother claimed that it didn't count as plagiarism because her daughter had handwritten her first draft. (1. That's nonsense. 2. No, she hadn't. 3. I'd found the original essay via Google.)

Used to be broadly the parents supported the school and teachers. They had a common purpose and were mostly united against the child if the child misbehaved. Parents have switched sides. This from my parents who taught from 1970-early 2000s and sibling who teaches now.

If our secondary school was like that I’d pull them out and home educate. I’ve no doubt many schools are like that, but thankfully not all.

Recently left teaching after 18 years, I’m only up to episode two so no idea what’s to come, but the second episode is the most accurate portrayal of a school I have seen.

Took a pay cut to leave the profession, and work longer hours but so much happier.

The parents of both girls and boys that I know expect far less from the boys. Less discipline and more “he wouldn’t do that” attitude.

I was in two minds about watching, but shall now have a look at it.

I retired from my permanent post about 7 years ago. I was in middle management, so much of my time was taken up with dealing with discipline.

By the time I quit my job, it had become noticeable that more and more parents absolutely refused to accept their children had done wrong: it was the fault of school staff; staff were lying/picking on their child; the child had a difficulty which explained and/or excused their behaviour.

I recall one child who obsessively used some kind of portable computer game. When told to put it away, he'd angrily assert that he was allowed to use it because of his ADHD. I think that that translated into his parent giving in for a quiet life.

I found out that the boy had shoved another child against a wall in Woodwork and had held a screwdriver against their throat. There was no suspension.

I keep expecting to see his name in the paper some day.

Latterly, parents and their children would claim that we had to be more understanding because the children had "behavioural issues" as if this were some kind of professional diagnosis.

I had one boy in S3/Y10 who swore at me every single day that he was in my class. It turned out that he was a free transfer [managed whole school transfer] from our neighbouring school.

He'd been in the habit of beating up other children. One day, a boy two years younger had been successful in defending himself. According to the bully's parents, their son was the victim...so he landed in my class.

it was clear that he was dismayed to find himself in a position where a woman had authority over him. Normal strategies didn't work. In the end, I resigned myself to calling for a duty manager any day the boy attended my class. It didn't make me popular with the SLT, but I reasoned that I wasn't going to tolerate being sworn at by a teenager.

SLT: "Was he actually swearing at you? Were you meant to hear it? Maybe he said it while he was walking away?"

Teacher too old to care: "Yes, he was swearing at me. I told him to take a time out. [Our classrooms had windows open to the corridor, so you could give a 2 minute time-out whilst still observing the pupil.] He was yelling 'Fucking bitch!' whilst banging on the window and threatening me."

He was still at the school when I went back on supply. By then, he was on a reduced timetable, agreed with the parents. (I'm not sure whether that happens in England. It seems to be happening more and more in Scotland. The school can't cope; the parents won't back the school, but they'll agree to a reduction in the child's time in school.)

it is categorically an assault- with the victims parents pressing charges.

Presumably you’re not in the UK OP

You mention pressing charges in your OP so I'm guessing you're maybe not in the UK so a different culture, my children's state school isn't like the one portrayed but it couldn't be further from an inner city large secondary (state school), I think we are lucky in that regardand it will probably catch up in time

My friend who is a comprehensive teacher said the exact same thing. She is recommending it to everyone

I know it is - I frequently speak to HoY etc about DS and am aware that they feel constantly undermined. I did draw the line that kids must spend all lesson with their hands on the desks ('active listening') sat up straight and any infringement was an automatic detention. For a kid with scoliosis and ADHD it's torture