Teacher questioned over attempted murder of pupil

[Frasersmum123]

This happened near to me

castella if this has occurred due to his stroke (with the inhibitions that can be caused etc) there this a chance that there was no indication that this was going to happen so his employees may not have been able to stop his teaching if the initial indications were that he was fine.

so a 14 year old child is lying in hospital fighting for his life.
pardon me if that is where my sympathys lie.

No-one suggested you shouldn't have sympathy for the boy. But it is also possible to have sympathy for the poor bloody teacher isn't it?

my sympathies lie with both the teacher and the child.

castella - lastest reports says the school got a "satisfactory" from it's last Osfted report - so hardly outstanding - although tbh I think that's irrelevant anyhow.

I am quite shocked by some of the comments I have read on some news websites. Almost everybody seems to be assuming that this boy did something really bad to provoke the teacher, some of the comments I've read have even (virtually) said that he probably deserved it.
The Guardian are reporting that the boy intervened in an arguement between the teacher and a girl, that while he was doing this he swore and then the teacher attacked him.

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/10/pupil-teacher-attempted-murder-case

If this is accurate then it seems that the teacher had already snapped before the boy got involved

so a grown man attacks a child, who then substains serious enough injuries to be in ITCU and we have to have sympathy for the man!!!
he had an option, he could have left the room.

well until they've ruled out a medical reason for his outburst I fully intend to be sympathetic towards both of them.

one of the after effects of a stroke is

"Behaviour changes, which may include being slower to react than before the stroke, excessive caution, disorganisation, difficulties adjusting to change and becoming confused or irritated."

also

"Mood changes, including mood swings, irritability and laughing or crying, even when you don't feel particularly happy or sad. Depression is extremely common, with symptoms such as loss of appetite, insomnia, crying, low self-esteem and anxiety."

"Cognitive difficulties, including problems caused by damage to areas of the brain controlling mental processes such as thinking clearly and logically, learning, paying attention, memory, decision making and forward planning"

would you feel the same if he wasn't a teavher?
if the boy had been 8 not 14?
Just curious as I don't get how the attacker becomes a victim.

FAQinglovely if he had a stroke that left him with those affects, then why was he in charge of a classs?

I'm not judging yet because we're not exactly sure what led to this. If it was months of provocation then my sympathies lie with the teacher. I have to agree with whoever said that eventually someone will get pushed too far and become violent. This man had suffered a stroke, FFS. Teachers are human beings and most of them have the best of intentions, yet are treated like scum by some pupils. It's a shame the level of violence is what it was in this case, the teacher really lost it here. But if he was a victim of bullying, I'm not surprised he snapped. I hope the boy is OK of course, but I can't help thinking the mans life is ruined when all he wanted to do was teach fucking physics.

yes I given the apparent recent medical history he has and the apparent totally out of character behaviour from him (based on quotes from current and former pupils) then yes I probably would feel the same.

the grown man always had the option of leaving the room.

2shoes - he'd been off work for 2 months following a stress related stroke.

Not all after effects of strokes are easy to spot or are evident straight away. Often those types of long term effects only appear sporadically - who knows - perhaps he'd only had isolated (or even perhaps none?) symptoms since then and he was declared fit to work?

If he felt fine and his doctor said he was fit to work you can hardly blame the man for going back to work.

he's HAD A STROKE - we don't know how that has affected his brain patterns. I'm sure someone else on this thread can explain the effects better than I can with my fairly limited knowledge of it - but as with other brain injuries it can affect the way the brain reacts to situations - which it's quite possible hadn't been tested yet as he hadn't been at work.

Some stroke sufferers have none of those long term side effects, others do - perhaps this man was one of the unlucky ones.

my thoughts are that the poor kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time and that looking at the current things we know at face value then the teacher could have "snapped" (due to his medical history) at anyone for anything in any place.

The teacher's state of health may be provide an explanation for the event but it doesn't pose an excuse. I send my children to school in the expectation that their teachers will act in loco parentis. I get frustrated and angry with my kids of course I do - but I don't beat them about the head and I don't expect a teacher to - ever. It's not ok, it's not justifiable and it's not tolerable.

A man has put a child in ICU because he couldn't manage his behaviour in any other way than to inflict a head injury. Regardless of your expectations of the child - the adult should never have allowed that to happen.

I do know a bit about strokes. but the question remains the same, if there was any doubt about this mans health(in one articla linked, it did mention him talking to himself among other things) why was he teaching a class of teenagers?
this isn't a case of a teacher snapping and puching or hitting a pupil, he used a heavy object and inflicted a lot of damage.
I ask again, would you feel the same sympathy if he wasn't a teacher or if the child was younger?

Northernlurker well said

14-year olds can be verbally cruel in a way eight-year olds can't. They're also physically more intimidating.

he didnt have a stroke but he had been off ill for some time ( i only know this as on another site there is a poster who is a friend with a teacher who works in the same school)

it is truly awful and everyone is very upset and in shock.

i do feel sympathetic towards the teacher, but he was in a position of responisiblity and it should never have got to this stage.

my dp works in a childrens home and is subject to daily abuse from the chidren (all in their early teens) teachers should be taught how to deal with this, the appropriate restraint techniques etc if necessary and support offered if they need it.

its very sad

Or perhaps we have to move to the US system of having armed guards in the corridors to call on if necessary.

So your sympathies lie with the teacher because his life is ruined!! What about the poor boy who has serious head injuries and may be left with lifelong disabilities because of what this teacher did?

4madboys, what would say are the appropriate restraint techniques teachers should be taught? I would agree with you if I could think of a single restraint technique teachers are allowed to use on children.

Of course, battering them over the head with a hard implement is wrong. Hitting them is wrong. Putting their arm behind their back is wrong.

But also, taking hold of them eg to separate two children fighting is wrong, leading them away from a confrontation is wrong, and holding them is wrong.

What is left to teachers nowadays?