Teacher arrested for attempted murder

[Bottomofthebarrel]

This week a teacher at my DD’s secondary school was arrested for attempted murder. He stabbed a woman in the head and neck in broad daylight, and I believe he was only unsuccessful in killing her because other people intervened. She is in a critical condition in hospital, so he could be looking at a murder charge. This has all been in the news, including the BBC.

This man was teaching my own child until very recently. She was given an after school detention by him for being very slightly late to his lesson, and the detention was just him and her sat in a room. That sends shivers down my spine now. I can’t get the whole thing out of my head.

This must be so disturbing for all the kids at the school. I feel that the school are potentially going to struggle more with behaviour control from now on - this man was employed as one of their role models so I can’t help but feel they’ve lost the moral high ground. Not to mention the effect on those who are in their exam years and are now minus a subject teacher.

How the fuck does someone like that become a teacher? I must say in the last 9 years since my DC started secondary, I’ve come across a few - all of them male - teachers who have got my back up and seem to be definite ‘power tripping know it all’ types, and not particularly bright to boot. There’s another male teacher in another local school who was in the news, having to pay £200,000 damages to his neighbour after a childish bullying campaign which went on for years.

Is this the best we can do? I get teaching isn’t the most attractive profession, but it actually terrifies me that these people are supposed to be guiding and leading our children, sometimes on a one to one basis. My worry is that with the current shortage of teachers, and desperation to fill vacancies, the standards are going to sink even lower.

This isn’t a general teacher bashing thread, there are many truly wonderful ones out there, and I know it’s an incredibly difficult job. Just feeling very shaken by what has happened this week. My DD really didn’t like this man and I assumed it was her being a stroppy teen, now I feel awful for not taking her seriously.

May be. That’s a common way for women to be murdered. But it’s very unusual for the police to run reassurance patrols when it’s a domestic murder.

Anyone can be a murderer

People that commit offences like this aren't just teachers!

I would hope the school will be addressing this in form time or assembly when they’ve worked out what they can and cannot say. I understand you’re freaked out. But in answer to your op, no I don’t think so.

The detention may creep out your daughter. I thought teachers weren't supposed to be on their own with pupils anymore?

Domestic stabbings in public places in the daytime are quite unusual. For him to attack immediately after work would disturb colleagues in any profession, never mind children being taught by him. Hope the school handles it well and the victim recovers.

I'd ram home to the dc that it's rare, unforeseeable and he's ruined his life.

Why would this impact their exams?

Honestly, I get being shocked. But you are being way over the top and making this about you and how you feel. When it's about the victim.

Some people do bad things. They dont become saints because of their job. I can't see anywhere the school are saying it's acceptable.

How would you expect the school to predict this would happen? If they couldn't predict it, what is you expect them to do before it happened?

A member of their staff did something horrific. He won't be teaching there anymore and will go to prison. How is that teaching that it's OK?

I don't think there is a test a school can use to see how people are on 'are you going to commit a crime in the future?' Scale

I would assume you sucking all of the drama out of this will have more affect on your child that what has happened, it is not all about you

I mean it’s not ideal but he presumably hadn’t committed a crime before this one so wasn’t flagged as a risk in any of the schools security checks. I don’t know what more you expect the school to other than hire psychics to assess all teachers futures?

Honestly the kids are probably loving it. We had something like this at my school when I was a teen and it was like the best gossip we’d ever heard. We weren’t traumatized at all - if anything a bit disappointed when it all died down and there wasn’t much else to talk about it.

Why don’t you re-train and become a teacher?

This thread is quite strange. If I was teaching a child who was misbehaving and they turned round to me and said, "but at least I haven't tried to kill someone like Mr Smith (or whoever)", I'd say to them "Yes, that's why you're not going to prison for a long time, as will happen to him if he's convicted. You have, however, been rude and not listening so you are going to detention."

I'm sure he wasn't thinking about being a role model when this incident occurred.

Personally I think the worst part of the message that this incident sends is how common it is for girls and women to be the victims of male violence, committed by perpetrators from all walks of life.

Interesting the school says it is a domestic issue that doesn’t raise any safeguarding issues.

I agree. I think the school will need to cover it and help the kids make sense of it. How they do that will set the scene.

OP you cannot say anything negative about teachers on mumsnet.

This will be hugely traumatic for many children, particularly those who trusted them - as teenagers they still have developing frontal lobes and yes it may impact them in ways it wouldn’t an adult.

The entire vetting / enhanced DBS process needs to change and the school need to support their students.

I would really focus and think about how you can support your daughter and peers if needed.

This is absolutely grim

The entire vetting / enhanced DBS process needs to change

How?

The teacher, until he tried to kill someone, was deserving of repect by his pupils so your daughter being expected to respect him was not wrong.

The case will be unsettling for the whole school because he was a trusted man amongst them.
It will be interesting to see what prompted his attack and why he became unhinged and violent.

Hoping the school handles it well.

Uh....why on earth would this send a message that such behaviour is acceptable? He's going to prison. That's a pretty strong message that such behaviour is UNacceptable. This comment makes no sense.

Unfortunately some men attack woman. The fact he was a teacher isn’t the shocking part. People in trusted professions can sometimes do terrible things eg Shipman…..

As for other staff losing the moral
high ground/ being open to ‘gobby kids’ that’s the current state of teaching just now any way - more reflective of their upbringing rather than their teachers.

I think you raise a good point op. My kids teacher did a terrible thing a couple of months ago. Everyone in school knows about it. It has an impact on the kids. I’m not sure what the solution is

I’m unsure but the Couzens inquiry has stated this recently and it has also come out in the IICSA

There are too many ways to hide backgrounds (ie I was abused by an NHS member of staff who was using an alias and not declared to DBS).

Teachers are meant to be role models yes. But I think you're over estimating our influence. I can't even get them to use the apostrophe consistently!
Very few teenagers would say their teachers are their role models.
We also can't screen on the basis of future potential awfulness. This isn't Minority Report.

Same can be said for any profession, all humans are capable of murder, the only difference is some do actually carry it out.

It’s also telling mental health has been raised as a reason early on in this thread yet, an assumption that he was mentally unwell, yet in most cases on mumsnet there is outrage when mental health is used in defence (see Nottingham)

How on earth would a vetting procedure pick up someone who hasn't done anything yet? That's not how it works.

I doubt strongly this is the first time he has shown violent tendencies somehow - it’s usually an escalation of behaviours that lead to attempted murder.