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 agree the teacher was naive.

But hold that thought...
She was naive to believe that her employer would act in her interests to protect her safety when a clear threat was made against her.

Maybe it says bad things about her, but not that much.
It says a lot about what many people expect governors to do. We have terrible discipline problems in British schools, does anyone really wonder why ?

There's a lot of people here who seem to be siding with the governors.
What would be their reaction if in their job their life was threatened, and the employer said "yeah, well shit happens", and took steps that brought the danger back into range.

I think it's totally wrong that any pupil can do this and be allowed to return to the school involved. So many people bang on these days about the rights of children - well what about the rights of teachers to go about their daily lives and work without fear of losing their livelihood and reputation? This was clearly premeditated spiteful behaviour. I agree with those who've said teachers should go to the police when they are subjected to this kind of treatment.

I agree, and think the question is also what school should this kids go to ?

I just don't see it as a solution just to dump him on some other school. He needs to be fixed, and protection should be given to both teachers and other pupils.
That's hard of course, but the feedback I get from various teachers is that the biggest problem in schools is disruptive pupils. Dangerous ones are the top of a nasty iceberg.

Yes Domini - the biggest problem is the total lack of respect shown by some pupils. The feeling that they can say or do virtually anything because there's precious little the teachers can do in the way of sanctions. Why should any employee have to put up with verbal abuse, threats or worse? I've watched incredibly talented hard working teaching collegues go off with stress or leave the profession altogether because of the vicious behaviour of just one pupil. These are teachers who are excellent at their job, and in any other career would probably be applauded and rewarded. But because in teaching they are at the mercy of the nastiness of a small minority of pupils (and parents) they can be destroyed. It's a disgrace.

Post 55

Thanks for that Juule. Interesting.

i really can't believe what i am reading here! everyone who has posted a comment on this topic has take a educated, mature decision to express their opinion with regards to this matter, myself included. As adults, fully aware of the effects our opinion will have on others, we have still taken the time and trouble to express them on the www. Yet there are certian members here that are happy to slate a 14 year old boy who stupidly set up a site to express his frustration regarding a teacher.
Now im not trying to make light of what he did as obviously he acted in the most inappropriate manner and i can fully understand how awful it must have been for the teacher to see. However, if my understanding of this is correct, the 14 year old boy has show full remorse and is keen to make amends for his stupidity. He has bseteen judged and it has been decided that he is of no threat to anyone in the school therefore he should be allowed to deal with his punishment and be intergrated back into school. I understand that the teacher should not have to teach this child anymore and according to one of the previous postings she will not have too.
What amazes me more than anything is that as responsible adults some amongst us here feel that it is right to pass comment on the behaviour of a child for stupid thrown away comments, yet do exactly the same themselves. Yes this child used the word "kill" and im not excusing this but how many times have we also used this word with out meaning it literally. we are adults yet one person here has posted a link to the tes web site staffroom comment board and i would like to thank them for that as i have now read the postings on that site too, i wonder what would the appropriate punishment be for the adult( presumiably a member of the teaching community!) who posted the view that the 14 year old boy should be put in a room and have the S* kicked out of him!!!! and that was not the only totally inappropriate comment. is this not hypocricy gone mad? these are supposed to be teachers!! people who should be educating our children the right way of living in society not acting like yobs! Again i state he is a 14 year old child not a so called educated adult who should know better! maybe we should all take a long hard look at ourselves and our actions before judging this child and his mother.

agree agree robyn

I agree that some of the comments on here have been inappropriate, and I would never think it is acceptable to talk about kicking the s**t out of anyone. However, I absolutely don't think it is right that this pupil should be allowed back to the school. He may have made a 'stupid mistake' : unfortunately this 'stupid mistake' is in breach of the law and also has had terrible repercussions. Any child old enough to have unsupervised access to the internet, and capable of doing what this boy did is also old enough to have to take responsibility for what he has done. The one thing that really grates with me is that the mother of this boy keeps saying 'You don't know the whole story'. No, we don't, but neither does she or her son know the whole story from the teacher's viewpoint. Ok, this may not have been a serious threat to kill. But maybe the teacher concerned has been sitting at home feeling sick with anxiety every evening since this happened. Maybe she is unable to concentrate properly on her job and her teaching and therefore the learning of hundreds of other children is affected.Maybe she's had to take time off for stress, so that if she applies for another job in the future and has to declare how much time off she's had (common practice in teaching) it will prevent her from being promoted.Maybe this has undermined her confidence to the extent that in a few years time she'll leave the teaching profession. This is the reality of the situation and this is why it's essential that pupils who choose to behave in this way get the message that THEY will be the ones who have to take the consequences.

Oh god please don't post stuff from the TES site, I find that place absolutely terrifying. I want to believe that any teachers who teach my children, aren't like some of the ones on there!

Shouldn't post 55 be reported to the police? Don't think anyone can argue with you on that one robyn. We'll have to assume that the adult person who posted that, didn't mean it.

robyn - there is a difference between what people post on sites like this one, where no-one knows the rl identity of anyone else, and a site where a poster can name someone else and their place of work. I could make aggressive comments and threats about you but it would be meaningless - I don't know you and you don't know me.

It seems to me that the problems in this situation are all those of the medium used. Posting on the internet is not the same as having a quiet verbal whinge to a mate or scratching graffiti on a desk. It's permanent and accessible to everyone. A 14 yr old acting stupidly has become something much more worrying and threatening. He chose the medium probably without thinking it through.

And of course papers/TV/radio seem to have fanned the flames quite dangerously. What might have been a small scale problem, dealt with by the child, the parents, the head and the teacher herself, has become a nationally visible scandal. With all it's ongoing repercussions.

I have always wondered when sad events such as these occurs, why on earth the family battle so hard to keep their child in the school, when there's now so much ill feeling?

Can you enlighten me?

Also, gatewaytoindia has suggested you verbally attacked the teacher in question, which you denied. Yet on the TES link that juuule made, surprisingly only pointing out one unpleasant and regrettable comment, the next post down, so post 56 states

"this apparently contrite mother is the same woman who launched into a fierce verbal assault on the same teacher at his parents' evening earlier this year." Do you again deny this?

So you say your son made these comments. He was excluded, you fought for the exclusion to be overturned, and for some reason known to yourself, the governors did indeed overturn it. Many people have asked what these reasons are. You have alluded to the fact there are some hidden details, yet you constantly refuse to make them known.

May I ask, have you as a family actually punished your son? The school tried to and you complained about that. I understand you're finding this situation difficult, but by your own admission, what your son has done was wrong. So has he been punished for his actions at all?

well I wondered if there was more to this than meets the eye and now I now.

So come on NJ35 - what is the real story about this so called ' verbal assault' on the same teacher? or is this also media fiction?

I think we all know the answer anyway.

oops now I know.

Yes I wondered about the fierce verbal assault.

Is the poster on that site the same one as on this?

Could they not do a managed transfer to a new school? Then there would be no exclusion recorded, but he gets a fresh start and the teachers don't have to deal with him. I believe it is quite a common solution to this type of situation.

I'm sure they could, but the mother/family seems to be fighting for his right to stay in this school, hense my original question, why in these circumstances would you want to stay, and not opt for the fresh start? Why fight to maintain a presense in a place when so much ill will exists, where you have done something wrong, have fought the system, rather than accept the punishment? I truly don't understand it.

it's a battle of wills ernest, I have dealt with parents like this. Despite the fact that they loathe the school and everyone in it, they are damned if they will let the school get their way and get rid of their son. It seems to me to be a case of willful intransigence. Very childish actually.

I'm not sure, didn't NJ35 mention his siblings?

Perhaps there would be logistic implications of the siblings going to a different school to their brother, or they would have to transfer too or something?

You all talk about rights of the teacher etc etc. Not all teachers are good, some are rubish. What if, just what if, the teacher in questions is not an angel?

Well what if?

It's irrelevant tbh.

Maybe she is rubbish, maybe she's one of those freaks on the TES site, but she's still got the basic right to feel safe at work and not to have her rubbishness dealt with the way the schoolboy in question behaved.

Some teachers are rubbish, some schoolkids are rubbish. Doesn't mean kids can put their names on websites and invite hate mail about them, doesn't mean adult professionals should call them a "waste of skin". Two wrongs don't make a right. There are ways and means of dealing with things.

I just wonder when teachers and pupils became such enemies

NJ35, your first post on this thread commented on your son and this teacher, and stated:
"they had problems over nearly 2 years and they didnt like each other"
What were the problems, and how did you and the school attempt to solve them?

eoj, maybe the teacher is good?

Even is the teacher was 'rubbish' or not ' an angel', does this mean she deserves being - allegedly - on the receiving end of a vicious public verbal assault by a mother, then a few weeks/months down the line her son posting "Do ya hate her? Wanna kill her? " on the web for all to see.

Why is this considered acceptable? Why would you take that view? If someone threatened your child would you sagely nod and say, 'well he is no angel'.

Do you think it's justifiable that anyone who's not as good at their job as you would should be on the receiving end of such treatemnt, or is it just teachers?

I am truly shocked at some people's attitudes.

This whole thing could be seen as the boy bullying the teacher and then when he was excluded the parents continued with the bullying of the school until they took him back

OR

It was an immature (14 yr old boy natch) attack on the teacher (but still bullying) by a boy who has since seen the error of his ways and deserves a second chance

Without witnessing or hearing the facts ourselves how can we know for sure