AIBU to be shocked by language used by head teacher?

[LargeGlassofRed]

Dd2 came home today and said the head had lost it and ranted at them calling them 'antisocial low life scum' ! Am I overreacting to think this is totally unexceptable?

Yes. Thank you Boney

Deliberate setting off of alarm
Students evacuated
Yr 8&9 "showing off"
Head bellowing about scum
OP believes child

I just want to keep my drip feeds in order.

Awwlookatmybabyspider
HT was bang out of line

Really?

We don't know what was actually said or how it was said.

what we have is half a story based on Chinese whispers, and posters going off on one

OP, YANBU. But, predictably, this thread is full of teachers defending teachers no matter what. Your DD must be wrong, or lying, teachers are stressed, you're one of 'those' parents, yadda yadda yadda. Yawn.

biscuit

Maybe you could look at the list of "facts" and explain what happened then?

I agree with the Head. I work in a school and I am amazed teachers don't lose it more often! Yabu to e-mail and complain.

I am disgusted by the tameness of the language used by the head. He should have shouted 'yous are all a bunch of fecking cunts' in a strong Glaswegian before boxing each of them round the ears.

biscuitmillionaire
OP, YANBU. But, predictably, this thread is full of teachers defending teachers no matter what

ODFOD

Once again, find out what actually went on is teachers defending teachers. Get a grip.

If the HT said this , he was probably very angry that the exams were disrupted and he clearly had every reason to feel that way. He could have said a lot worse frankly, and I don't blame him.

Ok, biscuit, I'll put my hands up to being a teacher. No longer in the UK because it's a horrible job there.

But let's be pragmatic shall we?

Let's assume the HT had an ill judged rant at the wrong year group. Not great. Not necessarily substantiated by OP either, but I've no reason to doubt her so let's assume it happened exactly as in her OP.

But the reality is that schools in the UK are on their bloody knees.

Baying for blood will quite likely result in a school with no HT. Result? Really?

Well the HT was right, wasn't he? No point sugar coating it! I wonder how many fire appliances were called out to tend to the false alarm that could have been dealing with proper emergencies instead?

Don't believe child hasn't heard the word scum before.

GCSE exams disrupted
Lessons disrupted
Emergency fire drill enacted (probably fire services called)
....all this within days of one of the worst fires our country has seen....

But let's target the Head for their behaviour..........

I am one of those who basically thinks that given the circumstances and recent events, that the HT was right.

I am not a teacher.

I was, however, a pupil in a school in the late 1980s when there was a fire during the school day. In the week before this, some first year boys had been messing about with the fire alarms, and set fire to the stage curtains. I was in a History class when the fire alarm sounded for a few minutes, then stopped ringing. This happened several times and the teacher told us to stay put. Before long, we could smell smoke, so the pupils followed fire drill, left the building and went to the assembly point. The History teacher stayed put.

From the assembly point we had a good view of the fire in the Science Block.

The Science teachers were setting off the fire alarms, and the janitors kept switching them off because they assumed it was kids messing about again!

If what the DD reports is accurate, then I actually think the HT was pretty restrained in their comments. An email supporting the school in their efforts to instil in their pupils an awareness of fire safety and evacuation procedures would be a positive thing to do.

Oh, and when I started school at age 5 I learned lots of interesting words, including fuck and cunt. Scum, to be fair, is pretty mild.

I don't think it acceptable, no matter what the circumstances. I'd be appalled if our HT said that about any of our students - it goes against everything we are working towards.

oh for the love of fuck.

look, I have a y8 dd, and her relationship with what teachers have actually said and what she reports them as saying is sometimes vaguely accurate. but often not. because shes 13 and they think they know everything.
How about getting BOTH sides of a story before jumping to conclusions like 'that' parent, op? what happened to people doing that? and not just steaming in like fopdoodles idiots without ever considering their precious children might be wrong???

Doris crying with laughter! Suspect we work at the same school [grin

I'm not a teacher.

I would be bloody fuming that a bunch of dickheads thought it was clever to let off a fire alarm on one of the big GCSE days.

If I were the HT, facing enormous budget cuts, I'd be mightily pissed off that some dickhead had let off a fire alarm which costs the school a not inconsiderable amount of money.

Being told they were acting like low life scum is pretty tame really. I would have been much much ruder, which is why teaching is not the job for me.

OP, YANBU. But, predictably, this thread is full of teachers defending teachers no matter what
Or its teachers who are well versed in secondary school Chinese whispers saying that the facts need to be established first before acting because we can almost think of things which were 'definitely true' that turned out not to be, or have had complaints and then we've invited the parents in for a meeting and it turns out home had only been given part of the truth etc.

If the head has said that then it's not good. I just find it more likely on the balance of probability and experience that all was not exactly as reported to the parent.

^^ me neither.

Sorry to burst your bubble, I guarantee your child has heard the word 'Scum' and a lot more.

And in the headteachers situation I would have probably said a lot worse! We are all human and the poor head has to censor themselves all the time, they're allowed one slip up.

If they were behaving appalling fair enough.
Someone has to start making kids understand they can't just do what they want with no consequences.
If it was one of mine I would back the head up and tell them to think about what they had done and if they really want to go through life with people thinking that about them or not.

Hasn't heard the word scum before?

It's what us scousers call "The S*n "

sheltered life indeed

People who set off fire alarms for 'a lark' during GCSEs are scum. People who set off fire alarms for 'a lark' the day after many people have perished in a widely publicised fire are 'low life scum'.

I think it sounds as if the head has shown some moral leadership.

Is the problem that you don't call a spade a spade in your house?

Jesus I really can't imagine get wound up about this.

Teach your daughter to take things with a pinch of salt when a) emotions are running high and b) she knows it's not personally aimed at her.

She must be astonishingly sheltered to not have heard the word scum before - has she never seen a Mr Muscle advert?