Did anything really tragic happen at your school?

[TattiePants]

I’ve spent today thinking about a murder that happened when I was at school over 30 years ago. I think it’s on my mind partly because it happened when I was sitting my GCSEs and DS is doing his now but also it’s been in the local news that another loosely connected child murder may finally be solved.

A boy from year 3 went missing and he was found murdered in a nearby derelict house. In the year prior to that, two other children had been killed in tragic circumstances so it was a really horrible time for the school community. Things got worse when a year 5 boy was arrested for the murder and spent months in custody, missing all his GCSEs. Many of us then had to give witness statements as we knew the arrested boy well. It took over 20 years for the actual murderer to be convicted and unfortunately he’d gone on to murder more boys from my school by then.

In all the years my DCs and friend’s DCs have been at school, they’ve (thankfully) never had anything like this. There’s been fights, teenage pregnancies, minor drug offences etc but nothing on this scale. Did anyone else have something really tragic happen when they were at school.

You seem to be spending a lot of time on a thread you don’t like, just to clarify that for you. You have your answer now so maybe give it a rest.

Don't worry, I didn't.

I looked briefly last night; this morning & now after work. Not a great amount of time overall.

I also don't need you to tell me to 'give it a rest', thanks.

It’s coming off that way 🤷‍♀️

It’s coming off that way

No idea what you mean?

I think trauma in our formative years perhaps affects us more than we realise, particularly as in the past a lot of things were hushed up and never explained properly to children. My late Dad had a school photo dating back to the mid 30s and even in his old age he would look at it and point out the boys who died before adulthood, of which there were sadly quite a few. He served in WW2 so saw his fair share of tragedy bit those childhood losses seemed to remain with him even more. I wonder if it is because until recently the tendency was to not to talk about things much so children never really processed things properly, and possibly "filled in the gaps" incorrectly for themselves if things weren't explained, possibly with ideas even worse than reality?
When something traumatic happened at my DD's school about a decade ago there was massses of support made available very quickly, with professional counsellors in school doing group and 1 to 1 sessions within days. In my day there would probably have been a prayer said in assembly and then the event and people never mentioned again. Hopefully that kind of approach will leave today's youngsters with less unresolved issues, but who knows?

In 1992 a boy in the year above me was killed in a racist attack, it's the same area as where Stephen Lawrence was also killed. The school held a special assembly to talk about it

A boy who was in my form class from year 7-11 died in a fire. This happened when I was in year 13 (6th form) but he’d left at the end of year 11. He and 2 friends were having a sleepover in a shed/outhouse and a candle caused a fire. All 3 boys were trapped and died. So tragic.

There was an awful tragedy involving 4 siblings at DDs school when she was in Y8, 2 died, 1 was severely impaired and one recovered completely (physically). It’s a small school and she knew them all, 2 very well and the circumstances and aftermath were awful.
i don’t think she and quite a few other DC at the school ever really recovered and it cast a shadow over her whole time at school sadly.

One boy got run over by a juggernaut. The driver ran up over the corner pavement and crush him with his bike. The headmaster went into town to bank some school trip checks and got clipped by a car on a zebra crossing. He died overnight. Another lad after leaving school drove fast down the lanes and killed two kids walking back from the mop fair. The father of a class friend committed suicide having picked up brucellosis from a cow (he was a vet).

If it’s the same school I know about, it happened in the 90’s. Yes, the girl who died has a name, her photo was shown in the local news on the anniversary of her death every year but it seems to be happening less now.
A friend of ours lived in the street where it happened, they couldn’t set foot out the door without someone from the press shoving a Mike under their noses.

That’s right yes 😢

A boy in my year was electrocuted. He was building a treehouse for some kids in his street and the metal tape measure he was using touched the power lines. Tragic. I still remember when the special assembly bell rang (3 times instead of the usual once, so you knew something was up) and hearing the news.

He wasn’t the most popular boy, and when we had dance class in PE the ‘cool girls’ would all refuse to hold his hands and just snigger and say unkind things. You can bet they were the ones making the biggest carry on after the announcement though and attending the funeral to get a day off school. Still shits me 25 years later.

There a was a student death nearly every year I was at high school, the school built a memorial garden with a plaque of all the students who passed away. I think it made the papers too.

Young boy in my primary school class in 1970’s drowned after getting tangled in the weeds in the smaller of 2 local rivers. Always remember the story being told as a reason why not to go into the river but, apart from that, his name was never mentioned again.

At senior school, the older sister of a girl in our year died on her way to work one Saturday morning. She was cycling and waiting by a set of traffic lights, when the lights changed her bike was sucked under the lorry that was stopped next to her. It was all the more sad as her parents were away and her sister (we were 12/13 at the time) found out something had happened because the place where she worked rang the house when she didn’t turn up for work. The school named an achievement cup in her memory and it was given out each year.

@MadameKali We just accepted it though - cars driving in and out too, although the car park was close to the gates some did still drive along to the main entrance, regardless of time of day. I hope the boys' legacy was that no more kids got hurt like they did.

@MrsAvocet agree. When the incident happened at our school, because no one really explained exactly what happened, there were awful stories went around, exaggerations and embellishments added by sensation-seeking kids. I do think, at age 11+ we were old enough to be told everything. I'm glad people are more open with kids these days, with the appropriate support in place, of course. When mine were little, a teacher died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition, and they used the opportunity to teach the kids about it, and introduce them to first aid and CPR.

Posting that you don't like the thread is fine, although it's better just to ignore and move on.

Trying to get the thread deleted (multiple times) is attempted censorship.

I am happy that MN is letting it stand and that you have (belatedly) accepted their position.

knew twins at dancing school quite a bit younger tears later picked up a copy of local paper and my blood ran cold there was one of them on front page murdered by a taxi driver after calling a taxi just awful

Trying to get the thread deleted (multiple times) is attempted censorship

Don't be so ridiculous. And learn to read. I reported several posts, as I said. Several times. That's not 'censorship'.

I am happy that MN is letting it stand and that you have (belatedly) accepted their position.

Why wouldn't I 'accept their position'? Another daft comment. That's how MN works - people report posts, MN delete or not. There's no 'accepting' or not. I continue to hold the same view as I did, but have no need to 'accept' any decision

Bit rude to say ‘learn to read’

I read your post about ‘continuing to report’ exactly the same way this poster did, perhaps you could learn how to express yourself clearly.

At our school, a girl was bullied by another girl for wearing glasses. The girl ran to hide & cry in the loos. A boy came in, but spoke in a different language, & when the girl - Myrtle - opened the cubicle door to tell the boy to get out of the girls' loos ... she was petrified, & died. Her ghost hung around not just the loos, but all the bathrooms, because she could now slither through all the piping in her spirit form.
In a travesty of safeguarding, no school officials were arrested over the death, & parents kept sending their DC there despite rumours of a child-murdering basilisk in the pipes.

Is this the kind of shocking & salacious thing you're after OP?
@EarringsandLipstick - hear hear.

Strange to waste a load of time typing that all out just to resurrect a thread you don’t approve of 🤦🏼‍♀️

I type fast, @Sleepingsatellite1 - & disapproval is sometimes as motivating as other forms of engagement ...

Top username though. Love that song.

Re the javelin - maybe true, no idea. But quite possible. A girl in my brother's year at middle school got hit in the head with a shot putt and was in a coma for a while. She was off for best part of the year from memory. I don't recall any more details now other than her name and that it would have been around 1980-81 as he left and I started in 1982 and we only moved there in 1979.

We had a nice lad in my year die of ms or something similar and a twin a couple if years younger die of leukaemia but that's all I remember while still at school. A friend's mum died too. After leaving an older girl I knew died on a moped while being overtaken. Many years later one younger boy killed himself, a lovely girl in my year killed herself and another from my year died in an accident and no doubt there's a few more but fortunately my year seemed to have got through things relatively lightly for which I'm glad

A lad a few years below me was electrocuted while playing with his mate on a train track and died. He was well liked so it sent shockwaves through the school. Another lad a,few years older died from an existing heart condition yet the impact wasn't the same, I know the teachers had a plaque and a,charity in his name or a,tribute to him.

Many years ago, at my primary school, it was April Fools Day. In the playground, full of children, just before we went into school , a group of older boys ran round telling everyone "There's no school today! Everyone go home!"

A little boy in my class ran out of the playground and was running back home when he was knocked down by a milk float and killed.
I often wonder now how those older boys lived with the guilt of what a silly prank caused.

In primary, a boy got knocked off his pushbike and was killed age 9.

Secondary, the daughter of one of the teachers was raped and murdered and one of the kids a year below me was killed by a train.

A lad I went to school with went on to kill many other people but that was after I left.