teacher injures my child

[lulamay]

My daughter of 14yrs has recently had her appendix removed, and was told by the hospital doctors NOT to do PE for six weeks.
The school were aware that she was absent due to her operation, and I had sent three emails to the school, to tell them what the doctors had advised.
The staff were aware, but the cover teacher told my daughter to just be a fielder, which meant lots of running around, as the ball seemed to come to her a lot, and the pupils were overly keen for her not to let their side down. She then gets hit in the nose by a tennis ball, thrown at her by this teacher!
She was in so much pain around her stitches that the school called me after PE for advice on what my daughter should do! She wanted to soldier on and come home on the bus, as I don't drive. But, when she got home I was really cross with the school, as they should never of allowed her to be pressurised to play.
She even had school work she could of caught up with due to her absence, under the guidance of another teacher, had she been aware that she was being made to do PE, even after I told them she can't.
The school is afraid of what I might do now.

Can anyone advise me as to my next move. Do I take her to the doctor's in the morning and make a case, or report to the school? Do I write a firm letter, or email. This should never have happened. Am I being unreasonable to expect the school to be held accountable for my daughter's injuries? Is this a case of negligence on their part? And what can I expect as recompense?

Now....before we cuddle....

Any underlying injuries??

haha Only1 hope you have good insurance!

Well my c-sec scar is still numb 7 years down the line and I have quite a large spot on my chin (sporers klaxon alert) but other than that bring it on

I agree with Iamnotamindreader.
It's silly to blame a 14 yr old for not standing up to authority. I feel very sorry for your daughter, OP.

The school are probably worried about legal action for negligence and with good reason: they have a duty of care (in loco parentis during school time), which was breached by willfully failing to follow clearly communicated medical instructions. The requirements would be complete if the child has sustained injury, which only a trip to the hospital will determine.

However, think this through. If your daughter has sustained damage, l suggest you need to accept that taking legal action against the school will probably mean her continued attendance there becomes untenable.

I would instead be looking for a full apology from both the HT and the staff concerned in person, to both your daughter and yourself to restore confidence on all sides.

I am bemused that a 14 year old who has had surgery is "forced" to take part in PE yet my 10 year old had dental surgery, and on the advice from her dentist is not able to partake in PE that day - her teacher had no problem with her mentioning it and she was allocated the role of score keeper!

I have older children as well (who have been through secondary school) and remember my eldest (who is also well behaved, unlikely to be defiant etc) also being excused from PE when she had injured her ankle in gymnastics (out of school).

I am bemused that a 14 year old who has had surgery is "forced" to take part in PE yet my 10 year old had dental surgery, and on the advice from her dentist is not able to partake in PE that day - her teacher had no problem with her mentioning it and she was allocated the role of score keeper!

Unless your child has the same PE teacher as the OP's DD I can't see what has bemused you.

There are reasonable teachers and there are unreasonable teachers. Sadly, the OP's DD came across one who chose not to listen to her pupil and ended up hurting her.

Have you contacted the school to express your concern and ask for an apology for your DD, OP?

I have not read the whole thread, so this may have already been said.

If your daughter agreed that she was capable of fielding then the responsibility is hers.

If she explained clearly that she was not medically capable of fielding, and was physically forced to, or felt coerced to, then the responsibility is with the teacher.

If the pain started while she was fielding, and she didn't report it, then any subsequent damage AFTER it started is also her responsibility.

if the school is entirely responsible, you could possibly take action, IF you can prove it, and that would mean independent witnesses who have had n opportunity to discuss the situation with you are your DD before being formally interviewed.

I'm not legally qualified, but have witnessed similar cases in the recent past.

In practice, it is likely that your DD is at least partly responsible, and will have no proof to the contrary.

However, I still think the teacher was a fool, took a silly risk, and should be apologising profusely.

I don't agree the 14 yr old was responsible.

I do know several 14 yrs old who would do as they are told, even after trying to explain something like this. Simply because they are shy and can't stand up to adults wielding authority.

I feel that if the teacher was told the 14 yr old could not do PE and why, yet still insisted she take part, then the teacher is responsible.

Interesting find, forex

If it quacks like a duck.....

My issue here would be mainly with the supply teacher.

I would be miffed at the school for having failed to follow through with their word, but I see that this can happen at secondary school and a certain level of responsibility is (quite rightly) passed down to the pupil.

But for the DD to tell the supply teacher that she'd had an operation and for that teacher to then make her still do PE is appalling.

Sure, you'd like your child to be able to stand their ground and hopefully this will be a lesson to your DD, but she did her part (told the teacher) and it was disregarded. THIS is what I'd be raising with the school.

It's not the responsibility of the 14-yr-old fgs

I had a similar issue at a similar age except it wasn't a supply teacher. I had my PE kit with me because there were some PE activities I could have undertaken.

I would put in a letter of complaint and ask the school to clarify their procedure for ensuring all teachers (even supply ones!) know of any medical issues with their charges.

"At 14 its the kids own responsibility to say whether they can do PE or not. I'd be looking at your own responsibilities here."

You are so lucky that you can force your child to be confident and stand up to people in authority. I have tried and tried to give DD some self confidence. I am clearly a bad parent because she is not in the least bit self confident.

"But... I had an appendectomy at the age of 15. I was doing PE a week later"

Well, bully for you. I think it really depends on how drastic the surgery was. To have an inflamed appendix is somewhat different from a burst appendix, and I should think the surgery involved and the recovery time will be different. We don't know the circumstances around the operation and shouldn't assume that everyone has the same recovery rate. If the doctor has specified 6 weeks then the school was very negligent and irresponsible.

Yes 'witch hunt' or 'a bully' if you disagree with the original poster.

No, it's a witch hunt if you actually feel it's necessary to go out of your way to search them up on the internet and bring that into this. Although it says more about the stalker than the OP. Mentally balanced people don't invest energy into a thread to the point of stalking them online to see what else they're up to. She didn't just look up and see it was on a forum, she read through those responses and then looked up her info and dug around on that site. That's not healthy behavior. At best it's petty and extreme boredom, at worst it's obsessive and creepy.

But ignoring that, what does her joining a forum before or not have anything to do with this discussion? It doesn't really. She probably said it because she wanted AIBU to be nice to her instead of flame her. Not really a huge deal to be honest.

I had an appendectomy at the age of 15. I was doing PE a week later

My DD1 had one aged 6 and was still in hospital a week later. If took her months to recover.

The doctors know the individual circumstances and, if they said she shouldn't do PE for six weeks, that is exactly what should happen.

No, it's a witch hunt if you actually feel it's necessary to go out of your way to search them up on the internet and bring that into this. Although it says more about the stalker than the OP. Mentally balanced people don't invest energy into a thread to the point of stalking them online to see what else they're up to. She didn't just look up and see it was on a forum, she read through those responses and then looked up her info and dug around on that site.

Or alternatively the person who noticed this discrepancy is a member of both sites and noticed the same story pitching up on both. Given the user was called forex trader the fact they are using a financial website isn't unusual ir indicates that they were trawling the internet looking for her.

I for one am grateful when someone takes the time to point out that people are getting the piss taken out of them. Perhaps everyone should hold their hands up, admit they got caught by a wind up merchant and stop bumping this pointless thread. Just a thought.

I had an appendectomy when I was 18. I was in hospital for 3 days. I could not walk with my back straight, or with any speed for several weeks.

Dh had his appendix removed a few years ago. He overdid it slightly when he got out of hospital, tore his stitching, and ended up back in hospital with severe peritonitis. It took months to heal, even with keyhole surgery.

OP, I hope your dd is ok.

Negligence (a real prospect here) aside, I wanted to say something about responsibility.

The child carries no responsibility whatsoever. OP has also acted reasonably in informing the school.

It might help to reframe this: if a teacher forced your child into a sexual assault situation, would you claim the child bore any responsibility whatsoever? Of course not. You'd rightly say that your child was manipulated into acceding to something they didn't want by an authority figure and then proceed to crucify the teacher. Of course you would.

OP's situation is no better and arguably much worse.

The point here is this: children are protected by law for a reason: they are naturally intimidated by those in authority. OP's DD takes no more responsibility for being pushed into doing PE than she would for being sexually assaulted.

Our children have blanket protection whilst they are children and I for one am grateful for that.

I feel sorry for your DD and you are NOT being unreasonable at all.
If yiour DD told the teacher she had had surgery and not allowed to do PE for 6 weeks then that should have ben an end to it.Where does the teacher get off thinking she can go against doctors orders?
The nose incident is completely separate, an accident just one of those things.Good job they were only playing with a tennis ball though, I thought it was only up to 9 or so they used them instead of a hard ball.

any news OP...have you consulted a doctor about your daughter's injuries ?

Only just returned to this thread. It was pure coincidence that I had been reading MSE and then flipped over to this site and noticed the identical thread.

No stalking was involved at all.

Have we scared the OP away?

AF

Agree.