To email this teacher?

[LadyWire]

My DD is 18 and at 6th form college. To avoid dripfeeding she has ASD, depression and anxiety. She is extremely emotionally underdeveloped compared to her peers.

Her a-level English teacher told a tale today about seeing a cat being hit by a car and hitting it with a tennis racquet to "put it out of its misery" before throwing it to the side of the road. He then kept referring back to it throughout the lesson.

DD has come out of college inconsolable. I've emailed the teacher telling him that a) what he did was appalling and b) it's not an appropriate subject to speak to a class about. AIBU to be angry enough to contact him or should I have ignored it? Tbh I'm tempted to report him to college and to the RSPCA.

silver I thought he chucked it in the side of the road? Why would he chuck it back into the road? What would you have liked him to do with a squashed cat?

I do not for a second believe most people on here would kill an animal and not go to the vet.

I think that's bollocks.

I hope that's bollocks.

It was killing a cat to put it out of its misery.

But as has been pointed out many times, if the dd is OK with fictional suffering as opposed to real suffering what about WW2 or PSHE.

I've sat through some pretty harrowing assemblies including from Jewish surivivors of concentration camps but also internet safety, road and fire safety etc etc. You cannot and should not protect children from the knowledge of distressing material. And in fact not dealing with these subjects in a safe environment and enabling discussion and reflection is extremely damaging for mental health (since they don't go away just because they are not dealt with in school).

Moussemoose
I've taught Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and looked at how Jewish children were treated. Students watched a BBC clip from a survivor of Auschwitz.

That was real and cruel.

Part of education is parents and teachers helping students to navigate tricky issues, not avoid them in case you get an email.

One of my colleagues was told off by a parent for showing part of Frankenstein because it's distressing.

And yet when I was teaching a GCSE text that linked to a harrowing event in a student's life (but we didn't know), their mum called to let me know and asked how we can work together to get her child through. She would have every right to be concerned and see if we could alter when we teach things but she didn't. According to Mum 'it's awful but this might actually be a usef way of helping them work out how to deal with it when it comes up in life'. Mum was awesome.

The way you are telling it OP, it sounds like he was proud of his actions? If very much depends on how he told the story. As an animal lover I had to euthanise an animal once, I still feel horrifically bad about it but there was no other option. It's not a story I ever want to repeat. If it was a cat/dog, someone's pet, I would never ever 'put it out of its misery' and chuck it in a ditch, and then regale a class with the story. It sounds like he hit the cat, a tennis racket does not guarantee immediate death and he was just getting rid of the evidence and is now trying to make himself feel better by pretending it was a humane act. Nasty.

If it was very clearly dying - and I’ve seen a rabbit not too long ago that was alive but would have completely fallen apart if I’d tried to touch it - why the fuck would he take it to a vet?

My cat was run over and killed last winter

The person who did it was sane and took the cat to the vet

Most people would.

pengwyn

Because you are not a vet, you do not know if the injury is fatal, you do not know if the cat could be saved, you do not know how much it is suffering.

Normal people do not hit animals over the head with tennis racquets.

I'm hiding this thread, actually. I don't think I want to know any more.

Killing a dying and suffering animal is not animal cruelty.

Are there honestly people on this thread who think the teacher saw a cat on the road, stopped his car in order to kill it (for fun?) and then went into school to boast about it.

The reason he talked about it is probably because it was weighing so heavily on his mind as a traumatic experience.

Some odd perspectives here.

Silver, it is perfectly possible to tell when an animal cannot be saved and is suffering.

How naive is it possible to be?

it sounds like he hit the cat, a tennis racket does not guarantee immediate death and he was just getting rid of the evidence and is now trying to make himself feel better by pretending it was a humane act. Nasty.
What?!

Like i've said, it wouldn't be my choice of anecdote but this is just conspiracy theorising.

I mean let's go further. He's probably the type of dickhead who speeds up into pheasants to see if he can hit them. I bet he also makes 'kerching!' sounds as he does it too.

Even if he had accidentally hit a cat, why the hell would he need to 'get rid of the evidence'?!

Witches
Op has stated that some of them have just turned 16. Thats what i was going by.

If your daughter has MH issues and will react as such, I would question if she is well enough and emotionally capable of studying such a course. Perhaps this may be not the right time for her.

I would put any animal out of its misery if it was already on its way out and would like someone to assist me if I’m ever unrescuable.

He sounds very odd and unpleasant.

I teach students who're mostly aged 18-21 (some older). I would never dream of making a casual anecdote out of something like this, let alone telling the story as a joke or an illustration of a point. It's deeply unprofessional.

Oh, and roughly 1 in 4 of my students has mental/emotional health issues at some time during their course (which is in line with the national average, I believe?). So I think it is idiotic to imagine the OP's DD should be barred from studying for that reason.

My child has autism too.

I think you need to take the focus off the teacher and put the focus on your daughter and helping her to become a bit more resilient. I appreciate this is easier said than done. Your daughter will come across many difficult things in life and she needs to learn how to manage them herself especially now as she is becoming older.

Most vets won't treat injured animals for free. So unless you are willing to pay ££ for a strangers cat then all taking it to the vet will achieve is another half hour -hour of pain (while you locate a vet) then pts.

LRDtheFeministDragon
It's not having a mental health issue or additional need which means someone shpuld avoid subjects that will almost certainly contain potentially upsetting topics.

I teach a number if students with mental health issues. They have support and strategies in place to enable them to study.

As i said in one of my examples, i taught a text that touched on a horrific issue in a child's family (we weren't aware). Mum could have very reasonably raised a concern, but she didn't. She wanted us to talk about how wr can help get her child through because ultimately they will have to deal with it. Mum was fabulous.

The issue isn't the mental health/need. The issue is having so little coping strategies that the solution is to get your mum to email the teacher and say avoid upsetting discussions around my child.

I have to teach about war to students from war torn countries. Get over the fucking cat!

Teachers have to weave their way through a minefield of emotions, relationships and developing ideas. We need to stretch ideas of right and wrong. If teachers operate in a narrow world of 'nice' 'safe' topics we are doing the next generation no favours.

Perhaps the teacher was discussing hypocrisy - people cry for the cat while eating that ham sandwich.

Most people would.

Is the true of all animals killed on the side of the road, foxes and all, do they go to the vet if they've been run over?

Mousse the OP's DD has autism.

This deserves to be taken into account by her teacher.

It's not about sugar coating it's about adjustment.

But as has been pointed out many times, if the dd is OK with fictional suffering as opposed to real suffering what about WW2 or PSHE.
Its been answered several times too. Studying historic events, or fiction, covering difficult topics, is not the same as randomly describing in detail, without warning, repeatedly, and so far as we can tell, without much regret, how you killed an animal - they are just not the same thing!

I hope everyone who is disturbed by the idea of a cat being violently killed is also vegan

I’m not upset but I can see why a teenager with additional needs might be.....