To think the School overreacted in Expelling Pupil and calling Police for a stunt,when a "bollocking would have been enough".

[smokepole]

Jacob Dowdle, a year 13 Pupil at Altrincham Grammar school on the last day of term May 16, put a paper plate with whipped cream in to his year heads face.

This was a very "Stupid" thing to do, but no harm was meant or injury caused yet the school called the Police and summary expelled him. The teacher was seeking a prosecution for the stunt, when she was not injured The teacher although upset , should have had the grace to except that it was a poor stunt , ( or like most teachers on the last day taken it on the chin as overexcited students behaviour).

I was disgusted with many of the comments about teachers on the link - apart from a general attitude that they should put up with this type of behaviour cheerfully, there were many short "comments" that were just insults, a lot of them sexist.

I know that we can't expect much from the kind of people who would support this action, but it was a telling indictment on how teachers are regarded by many pupils - with a complete absence of any kind of respect, either professional or personal. Is it any wonder that half our teachers give up within five years of qualifying, most quoting disrespect and misbehaviour in the classroom as the principal cause.

It is vital that we support teachers when this sort of incident takes place.

Not sure you actually know what 'cultural capital' is. Maybe consider spending your time doing something productive like reading bordieu rather than defending some jumped up little arse on the internet.

What he is benefitting from is classic British posh people looking after their own no matter how abhorrent their behaviour. Shame this kids' not actually clever enough to get in to oxford so he can join the bullingdon club.

Kid's (technically he's a young man, but he sure as he'll doesn't act like an adult. Certainly not a decent one).

The only people who know whether this was a "planned" attack ,or a "Prank" gone wrong are the people who undertook it.

When the teacher he disliked came out of the door, he just happened to be standing there with a plate full of cream in his hand. And his mate just happened to have his camera poised.

I call that a planned attack.

Maxs. I have been "dunked" at work by other staff Men/Women for my birthday and took it in good faith.

I'm not sure what being 'dunked' actually is, but I'm pretty certain that if any of my 'so called' friends covered me in cream / shaving foam or 'dunked' me in anything I would be pretty upset and not see it as funny at all. Clearly you have a rather strange sense of humour.

It does appear that if this had happened at another school, or other teacher, the incident would not have reached this stage.

I'm a teacher and I would expect my school to follow this up and would press charges for assault - just as I would had a stranger in the street done this to me.

I think we can all see that common sense has gone out of the window from all concerned

Actually I think that you are the only one with no common sense - how you can think it is ok for him to assault a woman by shoving a plate into her face (which if you removed the plate would be a hard slap) is beyond me.

Finally, you never actually responded to my question And if a mumsnetter came on and said her husband had done this to her should she just take it on the chin too? I think we all know that she would be told to LTB and call the police to report him!

That little shit deserves everything he got and is damn lucky he hasn't been charged and maybe in the future he'll think about his actions and their consequences before attacking someone.

The head of this school had a responsibility to the entire teaching profession to respond the way he did. He acted correctly and has my respect for that.
PS I'm not a teacher.

So smokepole if this happens to your daughter at school tomorrow you'll dismiss it as risk taking or over excitable student behaviour?

I've rarely been so disgusted by a thread as I have by this but sadly I'm not terribly surprised by the weak justifications of the OP and the few who agree with her.

And when I think of the many hard working and decent young people who can't get jobs it makes me furious that this vile little shit gets offered one on the back of this.

And the school didn't facilitate anything. He chose his appalling behaviour which deserves to be punished by the courts and a consequential criminal record.

If this boy had really thought it was a prank then why did he run away, refuse to take it off the internet or tell the head who else was involved? Perhaps if after throwing the pie he had realise he'd gone to far, apologised straight away and made sure she was alright then it wouldn't have gone so far. No, it doesn't take away the fact it was an assault but it would have helped.

It seems like a deliberate assault dressed up as end of term hijinks to me.

Are we sure Lawrence Jones is real? His FB pages and website read like an elaborate spoof of a slightly more successful David Brent-type character. As well as having lunch with John Major, he had a near-death experience in an alpine avalanche! I think my favourite feature of his website is the long-lens pic of himself playing chess with Richard Branson.
Assuming he is real, I think it's pretty clear that he's a friend of the Dowdle family - some very basic google research leads me to the conclusion that Pie Boy's father is the CIO at Manchester Airport, and may well be a chess-playing buddy of Jones's. I wish Jones joy of Pie Boy - I'm sure his presence in the company will foster good employee relations - after all, what's the point of going through a dreary old equal opportunities-compliant hiring process, when you can just simply give a job to a nasty little yob who has generated some bad publicity by assaulting a woman?

The only place I have seen comments which are diametrically opposite to those expressed by the majority on here is in the comments section below his petition. Hardly a ringing endorsement when most of those comments are one word insults flung in the general direction of the teacher.

I am a teacher and I would have reported him to the police. I wish I had a boss like Mr Gartside. I was assaulted by a pupil once when I broke up a fight. It was an accident, he didn't mean to hurt me. A very disturbed lad from a 'difficult' background. He had the good manners to come back and apologise to me. This little scrote, with all his advantages did nothing of the sort. Vile and entitled behaviour. He is quite a lot bigger than the teacher and it is clearly pre-mediated. Nasty.
I hate pranks.
Oh, but I learned a new misogynist insult today from youtube "shit clit" Nice.....

shit clit

Doesn't even make sense

Yup Bluestocking
Also somebody, maybe a MNetter exchanged tweets with Lawrence Jones in the last hour pointing out that Pie Boy was being very unapologetic on Twitter and now his tweets are protected.

Teacher here too, would have also called the Police.

The more I read from you OP, the angrier I get. HE is the one responsible for his actions. No one else. If he truly didn't intend for the upset he caused then he would be apologising profusely. Not running away and refusing to help with the removal of the video.

And what is this business about end of term high jinks? It's not normal in any school I've worked in. I used to have an all male sixth form tutor group, all bigger than me. They would have been disgusted with this lad, it would never have crossed their minds to treat a teacher, or anyone else, like this. What a huge difference in maturity.

All very nasty indeed. Let's hope that hiring Pie Boy is just one of a series of truly disastrous business decisions.

"OK" you have convinced me, the school acted in the right and appropriate way for the offence....

If that happened to either of my Daughters, I would expect them to respond in kind to who had done it to them. They are both very capable of protecting themselves, my son in contrast is a bit "Timid" and would need his sisters help.

Why do people keep saying I support his actions, when I clearly have stated I do not . I was only expressing a "Misguided View" that has been exposed as such by many posters on this site.

You have now convinced me that of course I was wrong in my view , that the school overreacted to the incident, you have also informed me that my grammar is appalling and that it falls under the standard expected on this site.

I have been exchanging tweets with Mr Jones. He claims he's just giving a local lad a break. I also looked at Pie Boy's twitter feed after Lawrence Jones claimed that he was repentant AND that his dad had banned him from twitter. Neither was true.

I think LJ is in it for the publicity.

You have now convinced me that of course I was wrong in my view , that the school overreacted to the incident, you have also informed me that my grammar is appalling and that it falls under the standard expected on this site

But your passive-aggressiveness is well up to scratch

The problem us, this young man's family are obviously well connected. I'd imagine the reaction in the media (and from the OP) would have been very different if he'd been from a disadvantaged background (and particularly if he was both poor and not white). It's only posh folk that assault people because they get 'overexcited'; the common folk do it because they're 'scum'.

Certainly, I doubt some rich, supposedly well connected businessman would swoop in if some kid off an unpopular estate had smashed a shaving foam pie into his teacher's face (especially where he clearly didn't like the teacher). I think we'd be looking at outrage at him being 'let off' with expulsion and an apology, and utter fury at social media unrepetence.

But this is just high jinks...

For the record , there is no Director by the name of Dowdle at Manchester Airport.

OK OP, but if your daughters were teachers and responded "in kind" to a pupil who did this they would be sacked.

If only one person has a pie how can the other respond in kind?

I hope you have changed your opinion on unpopular people somehow being deserving of having pies shoved in their faces.