Boy who urged the killing of a teacher returns to the same school

[Blandmum]

I saw this in the Times Ed today. I can't find an on line link.

A boy at Gleed Boys School in Spalding set up a website in Bebo that urged fellow pupils to 'kill' a teacher. He also encouraged them to post abusive comments about this young female member of staff.

The Head permanently excluded the boy, but this has been over turned by the governors. The head has to take the boy back into the school. The teacher is off sick, with stress.

Nice.

i appreciate there are 2 sides,my son did wrong and hes learnt from that,he is not an extremly disruptive pupil and that is my point,hes made ONE mistake,a stupid one yes,but should we all be thrown in a discarded pile for one mistake we make? there wouldnt be many left standing if we were. He showed genuine remorse for what he did,has offered to make a public apology to the whole school teachers and pupils alike and is willing to do anything to put this right.

OK,sorry.I REALLY have had a crappy day.If you were not concerned you would not be posting on Mumsnet at an ungodly hour of the morning.

Have experienced the sensationalist media thing and can empathise.

The family of previous post would not have been at all concerned re behaviour.

Hope thing turn out OK and look better in morning.My kids are only tiny.Christ knows what they will do when they are teens!!

Things.Jesus,I am becoming illiterate!

Im sorry too for your bad day,imagine turning on the news to see your families situation blasted out at you with no warning from anybody! If things were bad before they got a lot worse after the 6.30 news! His siblings are dreading school tomorrow as they are taught by these said teachers so i empathise with you,i guess things can only go upwards....

i just want things to go back to "normal"

Yes,I am sure it will calm down soon....I must say my relative was very suprised to wake up with ITV on the doorstep....

im waiting for that one....

Refuse to talk.Just Radio 4 IIRC.No payment,of course.It died down after a while but was stressful at the time.

Refused.God I need to get some sleep..so do you.It will be better soon,honest.

I am beginning to imagine,its been a huge strain so far and i thought it was all over and we would now be moving on as hes been back in school and being reintegrated...things are never that simple i guess

thankyou for not judging me,much appreciated,we have to live by our mistakes and this is going to be a learning curve for us all here,goodnight

Well,good luck tommorow.Hope that the teacher is also back in her job soon and things can be resolved sucessfully.

Sorry crappy spelling.Successfully.

Need to go to bed.

Sodding public sector jobs.Crap pay and too much stress.

Signing out.Very fed up.

Will heartily regret this in morning.

I realise that I started the thread, and I don't want to add to your worries.

How did the news repost come up with the 'urged a teacher to be killed' line (Honest question). It seems to be quite specific.

Second honest point. Would it not be better for your son, and the rest of the family if he had a real new start in a new school? That way the victimised teacher wouldn't have to see your son every day, and your son wouldn't be 'under the gaze' of staff who have said they do not wish to teach him.

Given than he has not been expelled, a volentary move to a new school wouldn't be reflected on his school transcript?

I do feel that your son shouldn't be damned for 'one mistake', but at the same time I don't feel that the teacher should have to work with him. Cyber bullying of teachers is a major issue, and leads to many breakdowns and early retirements.

I hope things improve for you all soon

sorry, massive typo on my part

I do not feel that your son should be damned for one mistake!

Glad I read read my post for once!

If my son is moved what about his siblings in the school?

My issue would be with your son.

I can't comment on your son, since I don't know him, and you quite obviously know him best.

I do feel that I can throw some light on how the teachers feel, since I teach in a state comp myself.

Teaching is largly done bythe common consent of all the people in the classroom. All the kids know that staff have very few, if any, real sanctions that they can use in the case of bad behaviour.

Being able to teach effectivly involves being able to mannage a classroom efficiently. And for that to happen two things must be in place. The kids must have a degree of respect for the staff (and vica versa) and the staff must have 'presence' in the classroom. The Senior managment must be seen to be supportive of the classroom teachers.

The situtaion that you son now finds himself wrecks both of these. Due to his actions the teacher will now have zero respect from the class members. She will be seen as a joke. Because the governers have returned your son to the school the kids will have been sent a strong message that they do not support the teacher, further undermining her position in the classroom. This will effecivly make her position impossible within that school.

I realise that kids can do stupid things, not out of malice (although that does happen). However I don not feel that you son returning to the school is the right decision.

It isn't that I think that your son is irredemably bad, or wicked, but I do feel that he has put this teacher in an impossible position.

I am sure that other schools would take him. That way he can have a fresh start.

Your other children didn't do anything and shouldn't be moved, unless that is your choice.

I hope that things get sorted out soon.

But surely if her son has given a public apology and has acknowledged it was the wrong thing to do then doesn't this change the situation somewhat? Wouldn't the teacher be in a more superior position to say that mistakes were made, apologies accepted but obviously he would need to earn back trust. Wouldn't this be better and gain her more respect than showing the rest of the school that she is a victim and a victim to the point of hounding out the boy. I would rather be an object of admiration for handling the boys actions well, than being an object of pity. Things are said on Bebo and similar websites by teens that are very extreme but are all bluster and bravado. It was wrong what he did, his site should have been closed. If has been said he has acknowledged it was wrong and hurtful then hopefully he will have learned from that. If this lad has a previous good record then surely he deserves a chance.

I would be very interested to see the comment reproduced here so that people can judge for themselves whether it was a death threat or not.

NJ35 - what was the precise wording of the comment(s) which the school took issue with?

also how old is the boy in question?

He is 14,what he out was "Do ya hate her? Wanna kill her? Draw on the white board? Leave a comment"
it was a stupid flippant comment that has been broadcast as him being a mass murderer on the loose in school. Now I ask you honestly do you ever say in conversation,"oh I wanna kill her when she does that" or " I could throttle him"....Does that mean we should have social services and the press branding us alongside murderers?? It was an immature ridiculously stupid comment but it does not make him a death threat boy.

The site was closed within 24 hours of it being made

well I for one would refuse to teach him again after that.

I agree with Martian bishop completely. You may well see it as 'immature,ridiculous and stupid' but it will have made the teacher's position there untenable if he remains. She deserves to be kept safe from your son. His comments are indeed threatening and frightening.

Why you would even want your son to remain in a school where he has incurred the wrath of the entire staff is beyond me.

Unfortunately you aren't really in a position to judge this situation impartially are you? put yourself in the teacher's place.

But it does.

If someone put my name up on the www and invited others to agree that they would like to kill me, I would feel incredibly scared. Surely the fact that she is off school with stress (presumably caused by this) should be taken into consideration?

I accept that your ds may not have understood the implications of what he was doing (at 14, who does?) but I can't see hwo the school, the LEA etc., can treat this as a schoolboy prank - they have to send out a message that posting on the internet about named teachers is simply not on.

I think as long as your DS gives a full public apology to both the teacher involved and anyone else relevant and the teacher is willing to accept that, then fair enough. But tbh I don't think she should be under any obligation to accept an apology. She has been made physically ill as a consequence of the behaviour of your DS, whether he meant to cause that to happen or not. I accept that he is genuinely sorry, but really think that the teacher involved has the right to feel safe and unthreatened. And if working with your DS undermines that, then that is unacceptable imo.

juuule, I would like tho think that you are right, that these teenagers will think ,'Gosh that miss X is such a strong forgiving person, she really impresses me. I'm going to behave in her lessons now'

But I don't. They will think 'Y posted 'Wanna Killer her, do you hate her' on the internet. And she lets him back into her class. What a wuss. And now I can do what I like, because I know that nothing serious will happen to me'

Change the teacher's name for a child's and re-think the situation. Well, the reality is even an adult will be scared by such threats. Teachers have been breaten up by kids, and headmaster in London was stabbed and killed by children from his school. A child in the East midlands was stabbed and killed in school. While it may well be that this wasn't meant, it is how it has been percieved.

I don't think that the school could, or should ignore this.