Teachers who have watched 'Adolescence'- what are your thoughts?

[Fstt1978]

Had an interesting experience this week after watching this at the weekend

sanctioned 4 boys this week with a demerit each - for pushing and shoving in the corridor- swearing loudly and generally being gobby to me.
All 4 boys parents have written emails to say it's unfair/ I'm picking on them etc etc. As it was 4 of them- none of them can be singled out.
We also have a boy caught on CCTV physically assaulting a much younger student unprovoked - it is categorically an assault- with the victims parents pressing charges. He has been permanently excluded and his parents have instructed a solicitor to contest this.

What is going on with parenting boys? Girls sanctioned rarely have parents like this - this is NOT a goady thread- I am genuinely really interested , and open to discussion about it

If our secondary school was like that I’d pull them out and home educate. I’ve no doubt many schools are like that, but thankfully not all.

Used to be broadly the parents supported the school and teachers. They had a common purpose and were mostly united against the child if the child misbehaved. Parents have switched sides. This from my parents who taught from 1970-early 2000s and sibling who teaches now.

I can think of one girl who was extremely violent and a transfer from another school. We were blessed by her because her mother was a former pupil and insisted that she wanted her child at our school...in spite of the fact that she had apparently hated it herself.

The girls committed an act of violence during lunch hour off the school premises, but got off with it because she was under 16. (The victim had a broken nose.)

Another time, she came in drunk to a mock/prelim and disrupted the entire exam. Mum threatened to sue the school for suggesting that the daughter was drunk...

The best that I could do was to ensure that she was given separate accommodation for the actual exams.

Then there was the plagiarism debacle, where the mother claimed that it didn't count as plagiarism because her daughter had handwritten her first draft. (1. That's nonsense. 2. No, she hadn't. 3. I'd found the original essay via Google.)

I'm confused, why would this indicate OP isn't from the UK?

Because it's the CPS that decide whether someone gets prosecuted not the victim

I'm not a teacher, and went to school myself in the Jurassic era (only had to worry about passing dinosaurs, not other pupils or the internet), but if this is in any way an accurate portrayal of a contemporary school, that's very sad indeed.

I'm the other end of the school system at the lower end of primary. I wonder if there's a connection between our education system being so stacked against nurturing and educating boys at such a young age and what you experience, OP.

You see the press charges thing on many threads, I think a lot of people in England use this phrase wrongly

Thank you both ({mention:Justapunta}@Justapunta). I assumed it was a turn of phrase being used to imply that the parents of the victim had contacted the police to pursue assault charges.

I was a bit outraged about the portrayal of comps… Mine are not in state schools but thought surely this is an exaggeration?

I'm a teacher in primary but can totally believe there are many, many secondaries where the behaviors portrayed in Adolescence is a reality.

Behavior even in primary, especially by male students, is becoming worse and worse. So is parental support. I can see some of our year 6 boys going this way very easily. Their parents will not be supportive of any sanctions if their support of our staff and attitude towards their children's behavior is anything to go by.

We have a huge societal problem here is the UK with lack of consideration and basic respect towards others.

Three friends who are teachers with in excess of 50yrs teaching experience between them have all left teaching in the past 6 months citing pupil behaviour as the motivating factor. Several other friends have also quit teaching over the past few years citing the same reason. I don't blame any teacher for wanting out.

The introduction of 'gentle parenting' and the ban on corporal punishment in schools and in families.

I can’t believe what I’m reading with some of these comments.

teachers need to have control of the classroom not the pupils. Swear at a teacher: parents called in suspended
assault with a weapon - expelled and police matter. If a child can’t behave in school then the school isn’t the appropriate place for them.

shouting in the corridor : demerit

these places must be kept safe for other children. Teachers deserve and are entitled to respect.

I may be missing the point I don’t see how anyone can hold school responsible for what happened in the programme. Did they not see the interview with psychiatrist? The boy had serious mental health issues, an unhealthy relationship with women. He would have gone on and on possibly being a serial abuser of partners. He took no responsibility and lied without conscious.

Evil had gotten in somewhere along the line

It wasn’t just boys in adolescence though was it. The murdered girl was bullying him.

I watched it with my 17year old dd who attended a failing school which apparently had bad behaviour. I was actually surprised (pleasantly) when she said that was not her experience of school at all.

There was a poll ran on an instagram post for teachers on whether it was a true representation - it seemed fairly split between 'totally unrealistic, never experienced it' and 'the most accurate portrayal of secondary schools they had seen'.

It was startlingly accurate from my experience! (Wasn't a teacher but in a kind of liaison role, don't want to out myself with details, so lots of school contact). I'm literally making my DH watch it soon so he can understand my life experience better 😁

I thought the portrayal of the secondary school was a bit insulting. Like we just play videos and write all the students off if they’re a bit difficult. The teachers were all shown as passive wimps who had no authority or relationship with the students.

In my opinion, there is a real issue with toxic masculinity. However, I’ve been shut down so many times by posters on here when explaining my experience that it’s not even worth even going into it.

In recent years the police are fairly likely to ask the victim what they want to do, and if they can resolve it with a warning and apology they will offer that. Its a resources thing. The CPS has ultimate say of course but if things are "resolved" without having to go there then they can be. Seems not in this case.

Spot on. Thanks for making this point.

My DC years 9 and 12 say their school isn’t like that at all (thank goodness). They’re at a state school grammar.