Should a male teacher have done this?

[mycatisannoying]

During a residential school trip, enter a girls' shared dorm to wake them up?
To my mind it's a safeguarding issue, and there was also a female teacher on the trip who could have done it.
I wanted to seek others' opinions before raising it.
Thanks.

@Ourlady
I would be having a word personally with him about the phone issue. Sneaky and unprofessional.

Meh. Teachers take literally 1000+ behaviour related decisions every single week. Some will get specific parents seal of approval, some won’t. Honestly, who’d be a teacher nowadays when many of the parents are less cooperative than the kids.

@Walkaround - it is a safeguarding issue because he shouldn't have gone into the room.

I thought yesterday was Monday. Doesnt make me right.

Jeez, I can't believe that some people think it's OK for a male teacher to even stick his head round a girls' bedroom door and shout for them to wake up, let alone enter.

A dorm full of girls is not one beast; several of the girls may already have been up and in the middle of getting dressed. The teacher had no way of knowing that, or if, they were all asleep. The dorm is their bedroom and private space.

I went on school trips 40 years ago, and the men came nowhere near the girls' rooms.

This teacher is either deliberately flaunting guidelines, a bit stupid, or not best intentioned.

only those who have been caught won’t pass a DBS check

I’m shocked so many are saying it’s fine but then it’s MN some just want to argue

This. Fuck me, AIBU is bonkers at times.

No male teacher should be entering a room of sleeping girls on his own - this is just common sense, and anyone not grasping this basic concept needs to shake themselves. The code word is totally inappropriate and I would certainly be raising both incidents with the school - he is obviously in need of some upskiling.

I've been on many residential trips and it's always been female staff dealing with girls' rooms and male staff with boys' rooms. Basic safeguarding.

How long until people start wondering why there are so few men going into teaching?

@ParanoidGynodroid - no, it's not ok. He'll have to be investigated over this. The headteacher will have to take action. He's crazy to break the rules like that.

If they can't follow safguarding rules maybe they shouldn't

Absolutely, as a secondary school teacher I had to sleep adjacent to the boys' dorm on a Four day French trip . The lads were great, they were all out for cold by 12.15 every night. The girls however - I basically saw one of my female colleagues with responsibility for sleeping next to the girls' dorm go physically downhill as she couldn't get them to sleep before 3.30am on any of the evenings we were there. Fortunately it was the end of the school year. There was only one other male member of senior staff and a female support worker for 30 kids in a foreign country - hardly massive back-up for the teacher who could have fallen over completely through lack of sleep. If you're uneasy about these realities, maybe your kids shouldn't go on residentials.

Safe guarding in schools has come on a long way since then. 🙄

Is having the ability to go into a dormitory of teenage girls without a female teacher accompanying them the thing that puts lots of men off teaching? You honestly believe that - or are you just posting for effect?

And this is one of the reasons why many don’t want to become teachers. People like you.

We still don't know exactly what went on as the OP''s explanation is very vague.

Can you link to your actual evidence for this? Or are you another one just making stuff up?

I'm glad you think so @Maireas but it seems that so many on here have no problem with men entering girls' bedrooms. What next? Changing rooms?

How long until people start wondering why there are so few men going into teaching?

Yes, let's entice men into teaching by dropping safeguarding and letting them enter girls' bedrooms and invade their privacy, FFS.

*Nesbo
So you’re unhappy about something completely different but picking on an issue where you feel you might be able to make him more vulnerable. Ok.

This x1000

If your problem with him is the phone/code word incident then complain about that

Do NOT try to make out he's a sexual predator ffs*

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

This!!

YABU. He woke them up. He is a teacher, not a random member of the public. This does not make him a sexual predator.

Most male teachers are exquisitely aware of their behaviour around their female students. They are aware it is a requirement of their position to be mindful of such things these days. This fellow is cavalier.

Oh, and many many people have asked what ACTUALLY happened OP - are you able to elaborate?

Former teacher here and this is wrong. It should have been the female teacher. I would just send an e mail to the school simply stating what happened and asking is this normal on school trips. I come from a time when there were several inappropriate teachers with girls my age in the early 1970s. It just should not happen now. He is a fool to even contemplate this.

This.

I can't believe the hard time the OP is being given. The teacher must know this is a clear breach of safeguarding. And the disingenuous 'Would you say the same if it was a female teacher in the boys dorm' FFS.

Encouraging the girls to snitch on each other with use of codewords is horrible too.

We don't even know if he entered the room.

People keep saying this but OP was clear:

"During a residential school trip, enter a girls' shared dorm to wake them up?"

Ian Huntley was a janitor. Honestly. The teacher probably didn't hear a sound so woke them up to start their day.

And now, he's being compared to child killers.