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.

It sounds like he was already called a hero / role model etc.

Regardless the school appear to have washed their hands of this with the statement they made - most would be falling over their own feet to ensure their students were supported, cared for and parents were reassured etc.

What a load of rubbish. Yes some people get promotion over others but it’s highly unlikely it’s for that reason, more the better pay cheque at the end of the month.

In addition, try working in a department of 35 women and 2 men. The worst environment I have ever had to work in.

Dodgy people slip into all professions. The deputy at DD's school give me weird red flag vibes tbh.

That's not exclusive to schools or teacher. That happens in many jobs and many sectors.

That's about personality. Not profession.

This case is undoubtedly going to shake some people up in the school community.

It’s pretty logical that some will be shaken up which is why I think it’s odd so many are trying to minimise the OP.

OP, please raise with the school that your daughter was alone in a room with him for detention - that should never be the case. Most schools run centralised detentions, and teachers don't spend time alone in a room with one pupil. That's a safeguarding procedure they can address.

I don't see people trying to minimise - they're just being honest and saying teachers are people and sometimes people do fucked up things.

There is a reason why there is so much uproar over Sarah Everards murder and it’s because he was a police officer who she put her trust in.

It is disingenuous to say that this man being a teacher is irrelevant because it is relevant.

He is in a position of trust and he should have had checks done on him and like with Wayne Couzens there will probably have been other instances that he got away with.

Bullying of pupils by teachers also happens daily.

There are people like that in every profession in the world.

It’s not minimising, people are trying to explain that if someone wants to murder someone else, it’s pretty rare it can be predicted to an extent where preventative measures can be taken. Even then, it’s unlikely to affect their job.

They should be completed by clairvoyants in future

This is really shocking, op. I would be devastated if someone I knew perpetrated a crime like that. Awful that your daughter was alone with him and that her instincts told her there was something off with him. I hope you and others from the community are feeling better.

Why do you think he didn't have checks done?

All checks do is tell us what someone has already done. They can't protect us from what someone with no history may or may not do in the future.

I also think the Sarah Everard case is different because the police have a history of covering up and protecting themselves - teachers don't really have that.

Right but they aren’t teaching the OP‘s DD.

I agree with a pp, it is odd. It’s like people saying ‘oh well, there are fucked up train drivers too you know’ when Sarah Everard’s murder (that’s three years tomorrow ) happened.

The subtext here is women should be out after and if they are then they’re bad women and at least partly to blame.

No that’s not true. As long as doors are open, it’s still an acceptable practice. Whether, as an individual, you would do it, is another thing.

It would be normal to feel shaken up but not to feel that the school are also culpable and that all teachers are potential murderers any more than anyone else.

Yes, it will make the OP shudder to think of her child in this man's class but, as I said above, all the rest of the school staff will be feeling this too. It's no reason for discipline to break down in the school.

You should probably go and read the outcomes of inquires I mentioned or are you always a dick to survivors of childhood sexual abuse, who have called for changes to be made due to their own experiences?

Well, let’s not excuse what he’s done already as a ‘mental health issue’ until he’s been to court. He may just have been a controlling, abusive, murderous cunt attacking his girlfriend (it’s described as a ‘domestic’ issue on one report), or he may have been unwell. We don’t know yet. All we know is there’s enough evidence to charge him with attempted murder. Now it’s for them to build the prosecution and defence cases.

Things like this have always happened though and always will as far as ai can tell. Teachers are people and some of them do terrible things, just like in the rest of society. I doubt most of us could spot a killer before they have done anything.

One of the teachers at my school murdered his wife. I remember it causing a lot of gossip for a while but then it settled down and everything just went back to normal. Possibly though, that was because we didn't have social media back in those days so there weren't constant updates etc. It was shocking though, and things like that will always be shocking, as any murder or attempted murder should be.

I don't see people trying to minimise - they're just being honest and saying teachers are people and sometimes people do fucked up things.

Perhaps read the whole thread

If there was an occasion when a child said something like this, then I’d expect the school to come down on him like a ton of bricks!

There's another distinct difference.

Couzens used his position as a police officer to convince Sarah to get the car. His job gave him access to his victim. And is the reason Sarah placed her trust in him.

Same with Lethby. They used their job to gain access to the victim.

That's not the case here. What he did was horrific. But being a teacher, didn't enable him to do it.

Until there's more information, assuming there must be other thing the school should have been expected to know is speculation and not helpful.

Don’t you think that someone who tries to murder someone else will have some sort of mental health condition??? I mean, it’s not exactly normal behaviour is it?