to take action against school for daughter's back pain?

[ghi]

My daughter attended a school where it was compulsory to sit bolt upright at all times like in the Victorian era.

You would get a detention if you didn't, and if a teacher allowed you to sit naturally, and a manger came in, the teacher would be told off in front of the class

This was teachers being made to impose a rule, with no medical or physiotherapy training, and the person that invented this rule was a deputy head who was a modern language specialist

This started when she was in year 10, and continued throughout year 11, and she is a tall girl, and started getting back ache from the first few weeks.

I really wanted to change schools, but it is a very difficult thing to do in GCSE years. I wish I had now, because your health is more important than your GCSEs

Anyway, she is at university now, and still gets lower back pain every single day, and it isn't improving - Gp can do very little except pain killers and physiotherapy exercises, but agrees this is likely to have been caused by the rule to sit bolt upright for hours every day, while trying to read and write.

I am so angry that a stupid, ignorant MFL teacher has done this damage to my daughter, but what can I do about it now?

Can I take some sort of legal action? I don't even know where to begin.

I would like to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience,

thank you

I think had you bought it up with the teachers back then that she was experiencing back pain and they continued to insist she sits in that position you may have been able to now better argue your case.

If you pursue this you definitely risk the headlines denouncing that now school's can't even tell the kids to sit up straight without risking a lawsuit!

Although corsets were really bad for other organs, they were great for backs, everyone stood and sat up straight (apart from men!)

Can she work on her core stability to help?
Where is the pain from? Muscles? Ligaments? Bones? Discs? There's usually an underlying cause

we did bring it up at the time, we were just told basically she sits ramrod straight at all times or she gets a detention

I wish I had changed schools, but at the time it seemed better for her to continue to finish her GCSEs, but looking back, that was the wrong decision

Why leave her in a school you say made her sit badly effecting her. That's down to you if you knew there was a problem and didn't remove her after a certain amount of time

she is doing physiotherapy - she has been doing it for years now

I'm really sorry your DD is suffering, being in discomfort must be very upsetting.
But with regards to legal action, would the GP or physio put this in writing @ghi because if not your case would be dead in the water?
The school could point out that pupils are only in school for 7hrs a day give or take, so how would you be able to prove it wasn't something else?
Do you know of any other pupils that suffered from back pain due to this rule?

Tbh if my DD was getting a bad back and I really honestly and truthfully though it was the school rules that were doing it, I'd just tell the school that she wouldn't be going to detention and that'd be the end of it.

I'm usually a big supporter of school rules and it being "tough shit" if my kids don't like the rules. But, if I really thought she was actively being harmed by something, I would 100% refuse to back the school.

yes, back ache was quite common, but I don't know if any of the others still have issues, she changed school for sixth form (well they all did, as there was no sixth form)

It hurt to do it, and students used to tell the teachers that it hurt. Some teachers used to take their glasses off and say "well, I can't see how you are sitting, but I trust you are following the school rules" then everyone would relax, unless a manager walked past.

But teacher detention were also monitored, and if a teacher hadn't issued detentions for not sitting bolt upright, they were questioned.

And my daughter heard that there were some teachers that didn't enforce the rule, and people could relax in those classes, but almost all of her teachers did, so she had no respite

I’m puzzled about the relevance of it being a languages teacher?

Nope.

It was someone who had no knowledge or understanding of physiology at all. Typically! Just read some suspect research and became a self proclaimed expert in posture - interestingly, there was a former physiotherapist teaching at the school, and they were one of the teachers who "took their glasses off"

I think you would find it very hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt that being expected to sit up straight caused her issues.

Their counterclaim could possibly be the pain is caused because your DD wouldn't sit up straight, slouched and had plenty of detentions to prove it!

I can't see how you will even be able to prove causation.

I would be amazed if your GP was brave enough to put their opinion that sitting up straight caused your daughter's back pain in writing - they would be torn to shreds in court.

Back pain is incredibly common and proving causation would be extremely difficult.

Seriously???

Does sound like a horrible rule to impose on kids, and I can see why she (and you) weren't happy about it at the time.

No way of knowing tho, and certainly no way of proving, that this caused her current back pain, so you probably do both need to let it go, and focus more on ways of helping her back pain now.

I think that you would find the case almost impossible to prove.

The school sounds nuts tbh, but I'd be interested to know what 'ramrod straight' really meant in this case, and whether it actually just meant 'no slouching'. I don't imagine for a minute that you'd have any case against the school anyway. As lots of people have pointed out, sitting up straight is good for your back. I mean... what's really the difference between straight and 'ramrod straight'? Surely you're just either sitting up straight or you're not?

Was about to say exactly the same.

How many people were in her class and what % of them have this back issue because of how they were treated?

No, sounds odd

This is something I maybe need to find out, and she is still in touch with quite a few people, I think, well, some, anyway.

Not all students had it imposed 6 and a half hours a day, as some teachers didn't enforce it - my daughter was particularly unlucky on that score

I asked my wife who is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist who specialises in chronic pain and she said sitting in any position for long periods of time can cause back pain, it’s not that she was sitting straight or with “good posture” it was that she wasn’t allowed out of this position for hours. It fatigues the muscles and can cause pain which can then become chronic pain, the back is designed to move, not to remain in the same position for hours on end.

It would be your DD’s claim. She’s not time barred if she’s under 21. But I honestly can’t see how you would prove causation. If they had required them to sit in a way that caused injury then hundreds or thousands of students would be affected. Sitting straight not slouching is usually a good thing.
It sounds more like your dc has an underlying condition. Hopefully physio and exercise for core eg Pilates can assist.