my son was injured by teacher at school - advice needed

[mrcerec]

Hi

A dad here

Yesterday my 12 year old son was playing football in the playground of his prep school. The music teaching assistant (22 yrs old) joined in the game without being invited. At close range he blasted the ball at my son (with no malicious intent) and succeeded in causing him to fall over and (as we later found out) tear a ligament. He then proceeded to tell my son that he was exaggerating his injury and left him to make his own way to matron. We spent 3 hours at a&e last night - a severe sprain and 4 weeks of no sport. I told the head this morning who basically poo-pooed the whole thing, despite a photograph of my son's extremely swollen ankle.

My questions are

1. Am I right to be cross about this.

1. What would you do - particularly when faced by the school's in difference

1. Would this happen in the state system?

TIA

Mrcerec

Does no one else think a 22 year old man should know better than to "blast" a ball at a 12 year old in close range? I assume the physical size of the 22 year old is considerably bigger than the 12 year old. Actually, size is perhaps more important than age here.

My sympathies (or not) have nothing to do with whether the accident happened in a state or private sector school.

I don't believe in sueing for accidents.

If you receive money from such a law suit, it means higher costs for the school.

I would rather that the money that schools spend is used for the good of the pupils, not for legal costs because an accident happened.

Actually, legally there is nothing to stop adults playing (non competitive) sport with pupils.

Accidents are accidents, and I can see that during the banter of a game a real injury could be fobbed off as 'exageration', but the school should have apologised.

I only said prep school because I'm convinced that in the state sector this wouldn't happen/ be taken much more seriously.

Yes I want an apology - written to my son - the head basically said to me that he would have done much the same thing as the music assistant.

Am I being unreasonable to want some of my fees back for the missed sport sessions?

mr cerec

mmrsceptic - but what are they sueing for?

a serious injury caused by the teacher's irresponsibility

TA acted unprofessionally, but it was an accident and they happen everywhere to evereyone.

I would be annoyed by the school's indifference to the accident but would definitely not consider any legal action of any kind. I would however put your annoyance in writing to the head and the governing body.

Let's get this clear - did the music assistant blast the ball directly at your son intentionally?

By mrcerec on Thu 10-Sep-09 17:31:41 I only said prep school because I'm convinced that in the state sector this wouldn't happen/ be taken much more seriously.

I disagree. It very much depends on individual schools how they deal with this. I have known similar incidents involving teachers and pupils in both the independent and state sector. The status of the school has had no bearing on the way they have been treated.

Yes I want an apology - written to my son - the head basically said to me that he would have done much the same thing as the music assistant.

An apology, either verbal or written, should happen IMO and I would push for that, on behalf of your son.

Am I being unreasonable to want some of my fees back for the missed sport sessions?

IMO yes. The fees are not directly paid for specific reasons, but for education as a whole. I assume your child will sill be at school during those 4 weeks and will still need educating and supervision during this time. How on earth would you decide how much money should be returned to you for the missing of 4 weeks of PE lessons?

You're right to feel cross, the TA was probably showing off but accidents do happen. He should have helped your son to the matron and he should apologise. Ligament damage can be incredibly painful, hope your son recovers well.

Welcome to Mumsnet

Wanting a reimbursement of school fees is bonkers

By mmrsceptic on Thu 10-Sep-09 17:32:59 a serious injury caused by the teacher's irresponsibility

Yes, but what is the outcome you want if you sue? When you are suing you are claiming pack loss of income or compensation to cover costs caused to the victim as a result of the injury? What financial losses has your child suffered as a result of this accident? What additional financial cost has it been to him (or you as carers) to care for him as a direct result of this injury?

Athene - "Does no one else think a 22 year old man should know better than to "blast" a ball at a 12 year old in close range?"

He should have known better - did the OP witness the accident? Did the TA aim for the boy, or did he get in the way of the ball accidentally? How hard did he "blast" it? It's a bit difficult to judge without being there.

The TA should definitely have apologised though.

Does the TA n ow realise the effect of his shot? AT the time he was obviously a little blase and did not have a clue about the injury. If he actually knew, maybe he would apologise. Makes sense.

it's even worse that his injury was poo pooed

ligament injuries need to be seen very, very quickly or they take much longer to heal

yes, he could sue for money, but given his child is there for x number of years would he want to? I'm sure he could definitely get part of the school fees back because of the loss of sport, plus any home tutoring required due to missed school, plus a compensation element. I bet he could.

If it was me I would be talking to the Independent Schools Assn or someone like that about how best to approach it. Wouldn't be on here. The school needs to examine its best practice. I would be happy with that, plus some kind of help for the child with getting back into sport when he's able to.

An apology is pointless.

er and I wouldn't sue,

if the injury will never heal completely I would be mad as a snake, and might go further, but I'm assuming that it will

An apology is the right thing to do, he needs to apologise to the boy for injuring him, accidently or not.

Isn't that what we teach our children to do?

I really really cannot see an independent school giving money back over this accident TBH. An apology yes, but fees back I very much doubt.

You could take it to the ISC or similar I guess, if you'd really want to take it that far at this stage.

Why is an apology pointless? It shows that the TA has taken responsibility for his careless actions and acknowledged that he should have acted differently in hindsight, and hopefully the TA has learnt from this accident.

Or do we think the TA should be out on his ear too? Which taking this further could lead to, or at the vey least the TA being suspended, possibly without pay, whilst it was investigated.

I'm sure it would be possible to get the TA sacked. People must be made to take full responsibility for all actions and sometimes taking money away from someone is not enough

why treat it like an unavoidable accident? it wasn't

it was highly avoidable and no fault of the boy's

it was the teacher's fault ergo the school's fault

and it was highly avoidable

And it wasn;'t unavoidable because we know for certina that the TA aimed the ball purposefully at the boy. Is that it?

No accident is unavoidable. Ask any lawyer

Not quite sure why there's so many postings on sueing - the OP makes no mention of it.

As for state school versus private, I'm inclined to think of them as big multinational corporation versus small family business (an exaggeration I know before anyone flames me) - there are Policies & Procedures to be followed by the former, whilst the latter tends to be less formal and more influenced by the dominant personalities. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, and in this instance state school might have had a more formalised Incident Reporting thingy to follow. So no, I don't think it would have been handled the same way by your average state school.

I would be mightily peeved with this school's response.

i don't know about the teacher

excuse prejudice but I'm thinking music teacher, possibly doesn't play much sport , possibly with fewer control skills and more of a need to show off

but he might be a brilliant and sensitive music teacher

if you do that to a child and you instantly rush over and apologise it's very embarrassing and quite authority undermining

of course he should have done, but this is human nature here

so he would have poo pooed it because to have caused such a serious injury would have been a terrible admission of failure

just saying i can understand the music teacher, though i think he was completely and utterly wrong to leave him without help and react the way he did

so given all that, I imagine he's privately covered with shame, possibly, and might only need a talking to

oh, I think I brought up suing, just because I think the school should feel lucky to get away with not being sued

it doesn't seem to realise the gravitas of the situation

I just wanted to say to the OP, don't be swayed by the school belittling this.