To think school have handled this really badly?

[MyballsareSandy]

DD is year 8 and last week a fight broke out in the playground between two girls. One of the girls has had all sorts of problems at school and at home, police involved, social services etc etc. She is very aggressive and most of the year group are very wary of her.

This girl, call her A, started throwing insults at a friend of DD's. Most people walk away from A when this starts, given her history, but this friend didn't, she gave some verbal back and A went ballistic and attacked her. A crowd gathered round, DD said it was horrible but over in a few minutes when a teacher ran out and pulled them apart. DD's friend was hurt and very upset. A was excluded for a few days, DD's friend in seclusion for a day.

Yesterday it came to light that a boy had videoed it all, which he showed to the SMT. A deputy head then hauled every child that was visible on the video out of class - approx 30 of them - had half an hour session, shouting at them saying they had let the school down, they should have broken up the fight, not stood there watching. He went on to say that there would be a note on each of their school records with details of what had gone on and each child had to write a statement saying what they witnessed. He dismissed them all, saying that today he would decide on their punishment which would be seclusion or exclusion for one day.

My first question to DD when she explained all this last night, was "were you all cheering and egging on", as I remember my school days. She said no-one did that, they were all shocked. DD said her heart was racing and she was shaking, wondering what to do and worried about her friend. DD told the deputy head that everyone is scared of A and no-one would have attempted to break it up as she would have turned on them. He refused to accept this, still emphasising they were in the wrong.

Police are involved as the friend's parents have reported A as assaulting their DD when they discovered the school were blaming their DD as much as A.

So I wonder if the over-reaction is to do with the police involvement, ie school need to be seen to be dealing with this. But it seems totally over the top. DD has never been in any trouble before, she hates aggro and is very well regarded at school both academically and with her behaviour. 'm waiting to see what their punishment is before contacting school.

Interested in views, sorry it's so long!

y8 is secondary school, kids are certainly not supervised at all times, so complaining about lack of supervision will get you nowhere.

Knowing how secondary kids are, a fight normally results in kids flocking from all over the school to watch. It's not normally a stunned silence, too scared to act affair especially if someone is filming. Kids love a fight.

The kids should know what they absolutely should have gone to get help. Isolation for not doing so seems a bit harsh though, although it may be the school is tackling an ongoing issue. They definitely shouldn't be punished for not intervening.

Is there an update to this?

Don't know why, but I was thinking about this thread, and wondered if there wa an outcome.

Surely only one needs to tell a teacher though, or are the whole year meant to rush off to find the teacher .As long as one person told a teacher that would be OK surely , can't understand why a whole year group were meant to rush to the staffroom or be punished

Coming towards the end of Year 7 with my DD1, I have become very disillusioned with secondary school. They seem to be very much covering themselves, with poor communication and shocking pastoral care. For the 1st time in my life, I find myself considering private schooling.

I remember when I was at school, decades ago, the rule was that anyone watching a fight would be in deep deep trouble. Regardless of egging on, just forming a crowd and watching was a big big deal.

You dd should have run straight away for a teacher. If there were 30 kids watching, surely they could have done soemthing Rather than nothing.

How do they all know someone else has found a teacher?

It's about learning to react to a situation situation individually rather than relying on someone else.

I think the teacher was right to pull them aside and tell them that it's not a good trait to stand by and watch trouble whilst doing nothing. I don't believe for a minute that there was no egging on. But putting it on their records is unreasonable IMO.