To think kicking her teacher was understandable?

[loonyloo]

I met a friend for lunch earlier and she told me a story from her schooldays. Apparently she was really cheeky and used to get into trouble quite a lot. She told me that one time she kicked her PE teacher in the leg - she was 12 or 13, wearing a hockey skirt and he bent down in front of her. She thought he was trying to look up her skirt and instinctively kicked him in the leg. Turns out he was bending down to tie her shoelace for her.

She told me this in a sort of "OMG can't believe I did that" way. Apparently her classmates had the same reaction, and the teacher was furious with her, called her a stupid girl and she apologised to him.

IABU to think that, though obviously violence isn't acceptable, it was understandable in this case? If it were my DD, I wouldn't be comfortable with her teacher doing that! It's not like she wasn't old enough to tie her own laces! Apparently the teacher never reported it to the head so it didn't go any further. I kind of think this was because he might have thought he would get into more trouble than her!

Erm, I'm not at all sure I'm buying his story about tying her shoelaces.

That's quite creepy, to be honest.

Sleazy teacher. Good on your mate , I'd have kicked him too.

Of course YANBU, OP. Who the fuck is going to tie the laces of a 13-year old?

As for people talking about this being teacher-bashing, wise up! At my school, several teachers had affairs with pupils, sad to say. And got away with it. This was in the 1970s. One in particular was a complete perv.

Well, she did say that she asked him why he didn't just tell that her lace was untied but he just carried on shouting at her, so I don't think she was one of those kids that need their laces tying for them!

She said he was fairly young BabychamSocialist. She didn't fancy him herself, but she said a lot of the other girls did. Apparently he left the following year and there were rumours going round he was seeing a sixth-former and got the sack, but she thought that was just silly gossip.

She made an assumption and could have been a very bad one. If it was a woman would she have kicked her too? Obviously there is no way to know whether the PE teacher's actions were harmless or not but you cannot condone actions that make awful presumptions which result in violence.

OP people like you is why teachers have a lack of respect; automatically jump to conclusions based upon a minute piece of information.

As for rumours EVERY SINGLE HIGH SCHOOL has rumours. Crikey, even mine did! Teenagers thrive off gossip and the more the better if it involves teachers vs pupils.

Well to be fair bangingmyheadoffabrickwall, I did say she said she thought it was just a silly rumour - she didn't believe it. And it's not like she reported the teacher either! She also apologised to him, remember.

I didn't ask her if she would've kicked a female teacher, but I suppose not. I didn't question her very much about it at the time. She told the story as an example of how much of an arsehole she was as a teenager. The conversation then moved on to other stories in which she was definitely BVVVU! I just started thinking about that one again when I got home, thought that as an instinctive reaction it was understandable, and thought I'd canvas the opinion of MN.

Normally I defend teachers - having been accused of being a paedo after a pupil bumped into me on the corridor - but this definitely sound off. At best he showed a lack of judgement - maybe he did go to the head about it and was told that he shouldn't have knelt down to start with, or maybe, as you think, it was something more sinister.

He would take them to the bottom of the stairs then send them up and look up their skirts. A lot of girls were told they were being silly and imagining things then too. He was eventually arrested and a quantity of upskirt and child porn of the photographic type you used to get through the post was found and he was convicted and barred from teaching

That was appalling! However, I witnessed an incident of short skirt/staircase disagreement in the 80s at a college (so they were all over 16). A student wearing a very short skirt was about to go upstairs. Two male lecturers were also about to go upstairs and were slightly behind her. She stopped and asked them to go in front of her as they would see up her skirt, and they refused, saying that she had chosen to wear it in a public space, knowing there were stairs, and if they agreed to what she asked it would be tantamount to admitting that they were voyeurs whereas they had no interest in her underwear.

Was it an older member of staff from that era?

It isn't confined to older staff - what about Jeremy Forrest?

Who accused you Kaitlintm, the pupil or the parents ? How far did it go ?

As for the incident you saw, did n't the lecturers have a point ?

My ds (13) can't tie laces or bows etc.

I specifically buy pe kit for him with drawstring waists and laces so no teacher is put in the position of helping him.

On this case the fact he started to do it without being asked for help or even saying 'tie your laces' is suspicious.
I was senior school at time (mid 90's) and pe teachers had some interesting ways compared to the other teachers.

It happened 20+ years ago - move on. Surely you have other things to concern you - if not aren't you lucky

Without! Drawstrings and laces!

DesignedForLife
What teacher ties a 12 year olds shoelaces???

Ever wonder why so many pupils (now a days) wear velcro in stead of lace up shoes?

As for the OP's friend's teacher, It sounds dodgy.

That's a bit harsh Seniorcitizen1, she only told me about it today and I thought it was interesting. I haven't been thinking about for 20 years.

12 year old, tying shoelaces? Not taken up with SMT? Yeah right. I'd have done more than give him a kick. This was a while ago, yes? There were shocking things going on in my day too. Thank goodness for safeguarding and a change of culture for girls at school now.

@Northernparent
It didn't even get started really - he just thought it was a clever remark to make and didn't seem to understand why I was so annoyed. The Head of Year offered to get his parents in to go through the CCTV together, and he admitted that he hadn't been looking where he was going and had bumped into me.

I suppose the telling thing is that I did report it to the next in line above me - if I had been dodgy I would have kept quiet. It was a scary thought though - what would he have said if there hadn't been video evidence?

The little dears ... bless 'em.

That must've been awful for you kaitlinktm. Thanks for the teacher's perspective.

It is not just unfounded pupil rumours, or a thing of the past.
At least 2 (I think 3 but one may only have been sacked) of ds' former teachers have been convicted of sexual misconduct involving minors- one of them went to prison. Complaints about dodgy behaviour and instances of un-called for "helpfulness" went on for years before school reacted. Large collections of child porn were found by police, so convictions not just dependent on evidence of pupils.

One of dd's teachers Sixth Form teachers (different school) also sacked for sexual behaviour towards pupils (inappropriate language and touching).

Pointing out that this happens is not teacher-bashing, any more than pointing out that some teenagers make false accusations is teenager-bashing.

Erm...
Unless you are about to drip feed that she lost both arms in a car accident or has AN of some kind meaning she can't do shoes, he wasn't tying her shoe laces.

Good on.her