to think this is assault and the police should be informes

[wheresthelight]

Been to see a friend today and her daughter had gone back to school on Thursday after a very nasty accident at xmas (leg shattered, pins plates etc). Despite my friend asking the school for work for her dd they provided none. Anyway since xmas school has been put into special measures and the head and governors sacked and an executive committee are running it and the head is very strict (ie temporarily expelling kids for wearing a coat inside school of building) and has blanket banned mobile phones.

Friends dd isn't a huge amount of pain and the school were told that if it got too much they needed to rung her and she would collect her dd and administer more pain relief. Her dd asked her teacher to call her mum and teacher refused repeatedly. Her dd took her mobile phone out to call her mum herself and was told to put it away or it would be confiscated (for a whole week ffs). She refused and was upset as she was in pain. Teacher has then grabbed her wrist and forcibly removed her phone. She has left nail mark bruises across her wrist.

Is this assault? Is it allowed?? I trained as a teacher but quit for health reasons before completing my degree. Have things changed so much in 15 years that teachers are permitted to bruise kids??!

I'm quite sure you know teachers are not permitted to bruise kids...

What has your friend said about it?

I'd have been down that school raising holy hell if that was my child, and a call to the police for good measure too. Nobody lays a finger on my children.

Of course teachers are not allowed to bruise children. The mum needs to report this to the Police. How old is the child?

She is beside herself but due to various issues with the school she is on verge of a breakdown and is struggling to know what to do. I have said I think this amounts to assault and she needs to report to school, Ofsted and the police which she is doing tomorrow morning.

She has written to the new governors in Feb to raise concerns that her dd has sen and they are being ignored. Her dd was very good at telling the teachers if she didn't understand but this particular teacher who has bruised her has been very dismissive of her. Dd will tell the teacher she doesn't understand and teacher simply repeats the same statement over and over with comments like "I have just told yiu" amd "I said X, y, z " over and over.

I used to tutor her dd so I know how much it will have taken her to ever speak out that she didn't understand and having seen her tonight her self esteem etc is shattered. My friend is so frightened of sending her dd back to the school. I have told her not to and to tell school she won't be back until investigation is completed but not sure if iabu

She is 13

If her wrist is still marked, I suggest she takes photos of it.

And no, she shouldn't go back unless school can guarantee her safety.

Police for sure. Teachers shouldn't do that to a child no matter what. I work in child protection and my team would investigate something like that. It would be taken very seriously.

She took photos on Thursday thankfully!

Whitebaget - thank you for confirming what I thought!!

I volunteer in a sector where I deal with safeguarding kids etc so I know bits but am by no means an expert

Just worries that I am too close to her and am livid and overreacting but it appears not! Thanks ladies

So dd was told she could not use her phone but went ahead and did it anyway? In front of the teacher?
No excuse for bruising (that's assault and a complaint needs to be made, invoking school safeguarding procedures) but dd should have received a detention. If she was in too much pain to have waited till break to phone home she shouldn't have been in school. Do they not have some sort of sick bay or an office where ill kids report to?

No-one is allowed to physically mark a child never mind a teacher. I would take it further.

harriet

Are you seriously suggesting that children with long term fluctuating pain issues should not be in school?

Harriet - the school refused to call her mum which I stated in my op. No one is denying she was wrong but the forcibly remove ot and leave bruises is out of order. Her dd's sen mean she struggles to process her emotions and the correct response to them. The school know this. She sees that she is in pain and her mum had said to call her if she couldn't cope. She isn't able to process the wait til break, she was in pain and tries to deal with it properly by reporting it to the teacher and asked them to call her mum. Tbh if it was me now I would have done the same as her

Well the head teacher has failed to return my friend's calls today so it appears that he doesn't think his staff assaulting a 13 year old girl is a serious matter grrrr

I'm pretty sure refusing access to medication is assault too.

Ohh hadn't thought of that side of it! My friend is a nurse but has had a breakdown earlier in the year so isn't really thinking clearly iyswim. Things that would normally be blatantly obvious seem to have bypassed her this week.

The school's behaviour throughout has been completely wrong. It should not just have arranged to send work home for your friend's daughter when ill, it should have liaised with the council so that she could have tuition. Excluding children for uniform infractions is directly against DfE guidance. Refusing to allow a child recovering from a known serious injury access to pain relief is unbelievably wrong, and certainly bruising her is assault.

One difficulty with the latter, however, may be whether there is independent evidence. The teacher will either deny that it happened, or will say it was an accident - though she would have to explain why she hasn't registered the accident herself, assuming she hasn't. Do you know whether other pupils saw the incident and will back friend's dd up?

On the SEN issue - your friend shouldn't waste time with the governors. If she thinks dd has serious problems, she should just go ahead and write to the council to ask for statutory assessment of her needs. There is a sample letter on the website of IPSEA, which is an organisation which supports parents of children with SEN. She could also contact the IPSEA or SOS SEN helplines to talk it through. And there's loads of advice available down the MN discussion page via the SN group.

No person should be assaulting anybody's children but surely the teacher could not be expected to just leave the other children in the middle of a class to go phone the girl's mother What if there were more children with sen in the class?

nenny thank you I will pass on that info. And yes there are witnesses I believe.

wombat no but she could have sent my friend's daughter to the school office or sent another child as a messenger. Or god forbid allowed her to ring from her mobile

Your friend should not send her child back into school tomorrow.
If they say anything, she should tell them that she has taken it up with the police.

And send a letter to the Governors. Perhaps you could help her write it?

Good points

She isn't sending her in thank god and governors have ignored one letter so she isn't inclined to deal with them.

There is a meeting about a different issue next week which I am going to with her. I have a history with her dd and used to tutor her so I know a lot about how to deal with her issues and tbh all the agencies my friend has dealt with thus far have been shit and uninterested. She desperately needs someone to support her and help her fight her corner.

She is also too accommodating and tends to try and see the other side of the issue but have pointed out the only side she needs to care about is her dd's and to not give an inch.

Just to clarify something- teachers are allowed to use 'reasonable force'. So if a child was attempting to seriously hurt other children and not responding to being told to stop, or the teacher trying non physical interventions such as attempting to place themselves between the aggressor and victim, and the other children cannot safely be removed, it may be reasonable for the teacher to grab their wrist and leave a bruise.

In this case though, the force used was clearly not reasonable. No one was in any actual danger, so there was no need for the teacher to physically intervene.

I just wanted to clear that up because people seem to be under the impression that teachers must not ever touch pupils, and there are very limited circumstances where it may be condoned.

When was the letter to the Governor sent?
And was it about this issue?

I agree that she needs someone to help her. The higher up in society the better. I realise that that sounds quite shallow, but sometimes it is necessary.

crohnic thank you and yes I agree there are times when force is allowed and necessary but as you say this is not one of them.

rabbit it was to do with the lack of teaching and work for her to do at home and the fact that her sen is not being monitored and whereas with my tutoring she had almost caught up in maths and English when she started at high school she is now further back than ever. She wrote to them in Feb when the new governors were appointed after school went into special measures but has yet to get a response. She has phoned and left messages and still been ignored. She had written a second letter that she posted over the weekend and I believe outlined the incident I am here for advice on.

I am very grateful and I know she will be, for all the advice given here. I was a bit scared of posting and outing myself or her but I am glad I have!! So thank you