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 wonder what Mr Gartside does when there is a planned assault on a pupil by another pupil or pupils? I would bet he does not call the Police!

Ha x posts George

Good for the school to make a stand and support its staff.

smokepole it is not a china plate , it is a paper plate. Look at the video, you can see it bent in the boy's hand before he throws it. China plates don't bend.

That is horrible. Everyone has the right to go to work free from being assaulted. If another adult did that to me at work, I'm sure it would be tantamount to gross misconduct. And this lad IS an adult. Don't forget, there are 16, 17 and 18 year olds in the workforce.

I wonder what Mr Gartside does when there is a planned assault on a pupil by another pupil or pupils? I would bet he does not call the Police!

Who knows? Not you, not me, not the press. You are just making irrelevant suppositions. It is irrelevant what he does or does not do in the event of pupil v pupil assault. Calling the police is an option for the parents of the pupils concerned and is their right. Just as it is the right of this teacher to report him for assault.

This boy ran away from the school afterwards, posts the video on social media and refused to take it down when asked, choosing instead to launch an online petition bleating about the harshness of his punishment and how it will ruin his life. Who knows whether the teacher feels her life and career has been ruined by this idiots behaviour?

The school did the right thing.

The boy is too old for such shitty pranks.

Game of power and control, and comes under sexual discrimination and abuse, not a "joke", Id say. I wonder what else she has had to put up with over the years from him.

We would do women and society a favour by, not just taking these kinds of things seriously, but nipping them in the bud.

Hopefully he will grow from a thug into a decent young man.

I have to admit I'm not so sure know. What falls at the end is not a paper plate. But as he walks towards her the plate is clearly curved. Someone walks across the camera just before the objects falls and the paper plate is already on the floor. Maybe he had something on the paper plate. I find it had to believe that something just randomly "feel" out of the door at that time. What ever feel was probably, and it was probably plastic not china, was somehow involved.

Fairy - why are you defending him? Genuine question.

In what world is assault on someone in their workplace OK?

I don't know about the plate either, now, but whatever it's made of, the hand pushing it into the woman's face was not doing so gently.

As a pp pointed out, if he'd just pushed her in the face with his hand, that would have been assault. Why is putting a plate with something on it (and the reports are mixed here - today he says it was whipped cream, but in yesterday's paper it said it was shaving foam) suddenly OK?

What would be assault outside of a school premise should ALWAYS be treated as an assault when it is on a school premise. If this was always adhered do there would be a lot better behaviour within schools.

Looking at the clip, it would seem he is also significantly bigger than the teacher.

It's been treated as assault because it is assault.

An adult male has hit a woman in the face. That's assault, no matter which way you try to minimise violent acts by calling them pranks/ japes/ stunts. Not only was the woman assaulted, she probably felt threatened and intimidated by the group of males that this student was with at the time who were egging him on, and she has since been humiliated by having the video put online.

Given the recent tragic death of a female teacher, the last thing the HT should be doing is giving the green light to pupils to commit acts of violence against teachers or anybody else. This teacher has now got to go back into the classroom and teach- what message does it send to her other students if they know that a student has got away with hitting her in the face?

And now this student is complaining that the school's reaction has ruined his life. He's old enough to understand that if you don't want your life to be ruined by the punishment, then don't assault other people.

The head is at fault in some ways- the exclusion should have been immediate and not resulted from the FB post, and Prank Day is a fucking stupid idea and should probably have been cracked down on a lot sooner.

When there is a planned assault on pupils I should bloody well hope Mr Gartside does call the police!

I think that some PP have pointed this out but he hasn't been expelled he has been excluded.

That is why he can still take his exams on site.

I'm with the headteacher on this and he has my sympathy; the student sounds like a real prize. I am however cynical about the noise being generated and the fact that he named Newcastle University.

I start by saying that only he and the school know his actual predictions and the offer he's been made. Let's assume however from his Press stated predictions and open info in prospectus from Newcastle that this student is patently unlikely to fufill a standard Newcastle offer for his course. The student knows this.

What's the betting he gets to results day then uses this furore to claim mitigating circumstances over the exam period to slide into Newcastle anyway? If the next thing you hear is that this kid is taking anti anxiety meds, one might suggest that this has been calculated. This is the way you evidence stress for something official like this.

It would put Newcastle in a horrible position: if he doesn't make the offer, he blames stress and Newcastle gets pressure from his medical reports and the media to admit him anyway.

He just tried to use the Press to bully his school for holding him to behavioural standards. If I were an admissions officer for a university, I wouldn't be confident he would not attempt the same over entry standards.

He deserves to be done for assault. What an arse. He's 18 fgs.

I'm a teacher and would expect a pupil expelled for this. It's assault and humiliating and a lesser punishment spreads the message it is okay. I would also expect disciplinary action if a colleague did this to me.

There is a big difference between organised activities with pie throwing/sponge throwing - which I have taken part in, and a student doing this off their own back.

I totally agree with the action taken against this stupid person.

It's clear from the video that he's at least the same size, if not taller, than the teacher, so that's got to be intimidation for a start.

And while it may have been a friend who videoed this, it must have been arranged with/by Dowdle, it's clear it was all planned. It was assault with the aim of deliberately humiliating that teacher.

If I were a potential future employer, I'd certainly not be wanting to hire Dowdle. He's arrogant, shows no remorse for his attack, and having shown he can assault the teacher I'd not want to take the risk he'd assault a member of the workplace.

If he considers his life ruined, then the only person who's ruined it is him. Himself and no-one else.

We need more heads to support their staff in this way

I read that article. Not sure why that millionaire business man got involved and offered the thug a job!

People like this (I cant call him a child, he is an adult) make me so happy I am not a teacher.

FRY - you are right he has no remorse. In the article he is all ME ME ME, Poor me, no thought for the hurt and humiliation he has caused the teacher.

Of course this was pretty disgraceful behaviour. I was going to say maybe expelled was a bit harsh. But just seen photgraphed and put on facebook. The school did the right thing.

It was assault.

I wouldn't want a criminal in my DCs school.

At my school a boy was expelled for the 'stunt' of setting off a firework in a playground bin.

He was expelled. His parents complained but I think the school did the right thing.

The Times article said 'permanently excluded'. Is that wrong then?

For the record, I have worked in a school where a student was permanently excluded just before his GCSEs (drugs related) and he was allowed to still sit them at the school but he had to be escorted on and off the site and did the exams in a separate room.

It seemed reasonable given the circumstances as he would find it hard to re-register all his exams at another Centre at short notice. He was able to go ahead with his exams but not allowed to freely move around the school or interact with other studnets.

Looking at the newer articles excluded has been removed.