What should a teacher do in this situation?

[purplerainboww]

What should my DDs teacher have done? She's in year 1 and came home from school on Friday and told me a boy from her class had spat in her face in the playground, she told the teacher straight away and the teacher put him in time out, now I would expect covid or no covid to be told about this incident! My DD is a type 1 diabetic so obviously we have to be extra careful with any illnesses as she has a compromised immune system, I am going to speak to the teacher first thing in the morning but aibu to the think this wasn't dealt with correctly?

Yes, the teacher should have told you.

I'd have expected as a parent to be notified of this - even more so in the current times!

Senior management should have been informed. They then should have contacted you during the school day so you knew when you picked her up. The other parent should also have been informed and called into an after school meeting, where they could inform her what action they were taking.

Thank you, I don't want to seem like I'm overreacting, but find it really disappointing I wasn't even informed about it, I don't think situations like this should be dealt with by giving the child a time out and leaving it there, surely both sets of parents should be told

You should have been informed.

I would expect his parents to have been informed as well, but you likely won't be told if they were.

That's not a run-of-the-mill playground bickering moment.

Well you don't know if the other parents were told and a time out is a consequence. What consequence would you deem appropriate for 5 and 6 year olds? I wouldn't go in guns blazing but ask the teacher what exactly happened and then express you were disappointed not to be contacted.

I would expect to have received a call/text from the school during the day, and for the classroom teacher to tell me what happened when I went to pick my child up in the afternoon, as well as handing me an incident slip with a summary of the key details.

Even allowing for different policies amongst schools, at the very least, I would expect the teacher to tell me what happened when I went to pick my child up after school.

Kids do stupid shit. I'd be fine with the teacher handling it as she did. I don't see the need for anything else & I think they gave more than enough to be dealing with right now.

But many others seem to think differently 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes I'd go in and find out what happened. Was the teacher her actual teacher or just another adult on the playground? Just thinking it might be lack of communication that her actual teacher didn't say anything. Also did he spit on purpose or was he just talking and some saliva went flying? (Very common!). With more info you can handle it with less emotion and get better results.

I'm a teacher and we had a similar incident recently.

We rang the child's parents so that they could support us in educating the child about the fact that spitting won't be tolerated, and I told the parents of the victim at the end of the day.

Please be kind when you go in though. You are right to raise it, no question, but I've certainly forgotten equally important things recently. We are only human and capable of cocking up like everyone else.

I think what the teacher did was fine too. It's not like you can do anything differently with this knowledge.

In my DDs reception class there is a child with ASD who spits a lot. He fills his mouth up with water and spits it over them as well as just spitting. The parents are never told it’s only when your child tells you. I rang up to speak to the teacher but she couldn’t take my call & I was passed on to his 1:1. She was very apologetic but she can’t stop him doing it & says it’s documented but she can’t tell parents face or face as she doesn’t speak to the parents at pick up. She said he does have a consequence when it happens but it’s clearly a very difficult situation & the child is non verbal & seems very hard to deal with.
I’m not the only one to complain as it happens on a daily basis but not sure what else I can do.

Sounds like they’ve tried to brush it under the carpet.

I would also expect to have been notified about this from a teacher rather then rely on the version given by a 5 or 6 yr old.

A word of warning though. Something similar happened to my child and I called the office to ask for details as I wasn’t sure my child had relayed all the details correctly. Since then the teacher has been very off with both me and my child. She hasn’t spoken to me directly since. Doesn’t comment on any of the homework we submit. Doesn’t share our videos, like she does the other children. Pretty sure I’ve pissed her off as a result but we aren’t allowed to approach teachers at pick up or drop off (because of SD) so my only option was to call the office. I wasn’t complaining about her but I don’t know if she got into trouble afterwards.

I'm a secondary teacher and obviously it's different but students are excluded for this!

I'm a teacher - she should have said something, that is absolutely vile.

I would expect to be notified if my child had been exposed to another child’s bodily fluids during a pandemic. You would need to know in order to be on the alert for any symptoms. If your child has a compromised immune system it’s even more important for you to be informed.

During Covid you should absolutely be informed, no exceptions. Normally though... It wouldn't worry me as long as the school had dealt with it and dd was reassured at the time. Poor thing, that's awful.

As a pastoral head of year 11, this would be consider a physical assault, student would have either a 2 day internal isolation, although more likely a 1 day fixed term exclusion (depending on prior history - could be more). I would phone the parent of the child who had been assaulted (although I had to deal with a fight on Friday lunchtime and wasn't able to find time u til 4pm to phone home, so a delay could be possible).

However, my kids are 16 and I have no idea how it would be dealt with in primary, but yes, if it was my child, I would expect to be told.