15 year old dies after school fight

[zephyrcat]

following on from the bullying thread.... lookhere

And then try to explain to the parents of the child who gets hurt by the nutter why you didn't step in.....damned if you do....

as teachers aren't we allowed to press charges if we are assaulted? i'm genuinely interested - if this happened to me i would NOT stay quiet for the sake of the child/school/whatever.
touch wood I've never been treated badly by any of the kids i've taught (save a bit of verbal but they're soon dealt with). and I've taught in a both 'terribly nice' very rural school and a city school in birmingham.

There is often a lot of pressure put on staff not to press charges. That must hurt more than the assault tbh.

I just couldn't do that job

But when it is good it is very, very good! Honest!

School does seem to have its own rules which are quite apart from the rest of society. A bit like the army, who have their own martial justice system, but the army's rules are stricter than everyone elses (supposedly) while school justice seems to be much more lax. I can't imagine why the management of schools put pressure on their staff to endure assaults in their workplace and not go for prosecutions - is it because they fear for the reputation of the school? Or some other reason?

they don't want the bad press.

Part of the problem re the dicipline is that parents come in all shapes, sizes and persusions when it comes to rules for their kids. You only have to read mumsnet to see that! And in real life attitudes are even more polarised. For every parent who thnks that things are too lax you will get one that thinks their child is being victimised or their 'originality' quashed.

For example I have a mother complaining about me at the moment. Apparently 'I delight is picking' on her child. This because I asked (politly) the child to move. She refused and then cried all lesson (she is almost 14 btw). The reason I asked the kid to move? The mother had asked me to make sure her little darling didn't sit by another girl who is a bad influence. Go figure!

Locally a situation of a child assaulting a teacher has been to court. The puppil, aged 16, pushed two teachers, hit one in the face with his fist and knocked other to the ground. May be more to it but can't remember full details now. The pupil was found guilty, and was order to pay £25 compensation to both male teachers! May have got some very short community service too. Hardly worth the bother really is it?