Accused of trespassing for helping a child

[tatt]

anyone know if there is more to this story or is it health & safety gone mad again? health&safety

The Mail says
"But the school alleges that she ?approached the school in an inappropriate way? and asked her to leave the premises after she got into a row with staff over the boy's welfare.
Later that evening a letter from head teacher Beverley Martin was posted through Miss Barrett?s door, explaining that the school had contacted police about the incident.
The next morning she was visited by a PCSO who told her she had committed a trespassing offence by helping the young schoolboy down from the tree."

If the school teachers were observing the child, why didn't they intervene to stop the woman from approaching the child (if they thought she was a trespassing loon)? If they were concerned why didn't they immediately call the police? The police arrived at the woman's home the next morning and told her she had committed a trespassing offence. Presumably this is trespass against the school and not against the mother of the child. Going by this it looks like the school instigated the trespass complaint. Has anyone got a linl to the school's website with their version?

But if the staff saw this woman in the 10 minute interval, then I think it's likely they were watching the boy.

"The child stayed out to play with 130 other children and they were all supervised by 7 teaching assistants"
Don't understand your point. Are you saying that the two breaktimes were consecutive and the child was never left alone (if so, how did the woman manage all this without one of the 7 TAs intervening?). That's not my reading of the school's letter. It said that the incident happened in the 10 minute gap between one breaktime and the next.

"The school maintains that the child 'was standing on the path,having exited the tree'."

When, exactly? - they are a bit coy on that detail. They admit that he was in the tree at some stage. It is quite conceivable that it was the entrance of the woman into the playground that caused him to get down. It is normal child behaviour to do something naughty, if they think that they can get away with it, but to then start behaving when a grown-up, unknown and therefore presumed-authority figure turns up.

You asked why they'd dedicated 3 members of staff for watch duty. I accept that I hadn't taken account of the ten minute gap. I would imagine the KS2 TA spotted the woman, and then sent for the male member of staff to intervene.

X-posts with many. Sorry I took so long. I was double checking all my facts.

link and link for claig

The woman says
"The school say he was being watched but that's impossible because there is no line of sight from the school building to the tree."
if this is true it would explain why nobody sought to intervene to stop the woamn (or loon if that is what they thought she was).

She says

"I was immediately concerned. I walked over to the school with the boy and was met by the associate head.
?He didn't appear at all concerned, and was actually very patronising, patting me on the arm and asking me ?what do you expect me to do, exactly, dear??
?When I said I thought it was a serious incident, he then said his only concern was me trespassing.
?I was initially surprised that no one appeared to have missed this boy, no one could have known where he was because they could not have seen him from the school, and I was shocked at the way I was dealt with.?"

Possibly she got a bit shirty with the associate head and he then accused her of trespass. The next day a police officer came to see her about the trespass.

I bet everyone involved is wishing they had handled this differently!

Are we calling a truce on this then?
[wants to go shopping emoticon]

I think some major arse covering has gone on here, and I think the child's dm over reacted I think I would have tried to speak to the woman invoved if it had been my ds. Melksham is not a v. big town and they are bound to run int each other. I am actualluy concerned with the school demonising someone unecessarily people are all to willing to shout PAEDO given the slightest excuse thw woman has to carry on living there!

Not in the light of your personal comment towards me, purits, no.

purits Go! max out you credit card

feenie: I'm trying to be the bigger person here but you are not making it easy. Try re-reading the thread and see who was the first person to make personal comments (a clue: she called another person, who she didn't know from Adam, a "grade A loon")

Don't be so ridiculous - she isn't here. You, however, are interacting with me directly. You know I am a teacher, you chose to overlook the fact that I wasn't actually arguing in favour of ridiculous health and safety rules and told me my priorities where misplaced in the job where I actually do my damned hardest to put the children first in every single day. You have no idea what kind of teacher I am, and as such you had no right to say it. It's tantamount to me saying that because you jump to conclusions, you must have your priorities wrong in your role as a parent. But I couldn't say that about you, because I don't know you.

Bigger person? You have got to be kidding.

I think one thing we can all agree on, is that the reporting is shoddy. I read 3 reports in 3 different newspapers, they were all the same, and all differed somewhat from the texts on teh school's own website.

feenie: if I was the only person you were attacking then I might have reason to pause for thought, but you seem to have picked a fight with several people on here.

I am pissed off at your comment where you accuse me of 'jumping to conclusions' when you have previously described your behaviour as 'reading between the lines'. So when you do it it's OK, but not when anybody else does it? It's OK for you to name call but not when anybody else does? (not that anybody did, you were inventing slights).
Get over yourself!

I have a nasty feeling that public service workers have got so carried away with their "we won't stand for verbal abuse of our staff" routine that they now cannot accept any form of dissent without turning it into a full blown argument, involving 'procedures', calling the police etc. I don't know about health&safety gorn mad but common sense and the ability to communicate with non-teachers seems lacking.

You have absolutely no idea whether I put Health and Safety measures before children - I most certainly do not, and this is the job I put my heart and soul into every day that you are attacking. How dare you tell me my priorities don't lie with the children?

I haven't attacked anyone - I said I found bernadette's comments offensive, and she managed to disagree with that without attacking me personally. Yes, I said you jump to conclusions, because you absolutely did when you said that to me (first, I might add). An equivalent personal attack might be me saying to you 'Thank Christ you aren't a parent in my classroom, because you sound like a nightmare' - but that would be equally unfair and offensive, since I have no idea how you conduct yourself with your dc's teachers. Do you see?

If you really were the bigger person, you would look back and say 'okay, I had no right to say that, I have no idea about how you do your job - I was out of order'. But you really aren't, that's clear.

And who are the several people I have picked a fight with? What are you on about?

she didn't argue with me?

i'm fascinated by what makes people so het up about authority, and what makes them bend over backwards to attempt to prove that any authority figure is wrong. championing the man on the street? it doesn't work if the man (or woman) on the street is not credible.

if the police listened to all involved and popped round to have a word with the woman, tis good enough for me. no-one hurt, and adults escorted off school premises if they have no reason to be there.

all's well that ends well, and none of it should ever have been reported in the first place. what a way to drum up a good row. a waste of everyone's time.

and the nutter who commented on the staff car park rule needs to try and sort out the aftermath of an unaccompanied infant crossing the (out of bounds) staff car park and getting knocked down by a car. the rules aren't there to protect staff car parking lol, they are there to stop kids getting runover - lots of school areas have a 'walkway' painted...

and, no. i'm not a teacher.

I am sure that you are perfection personified feenie.

And I'm sure in rl you don't make snide remarks to people you know nothing about, purits.

No more than you would make snide remarks about grade A loons people that you know nothing about.

You were talking to me, about me, directly.

Sorry, I forgot. It's not OK to be offensive to teachers but it is OK for teachers to be offensive to mere mortals.
You are unbelievable.

No, it's not ok to be rude about someone's job when they are conversing with you on an internet forum. Had I been talking to the woman in question on this thread, I wouldn't have called her a loon. I'm sure you can understand the difference if you try hard enough.

I was pissed off because I am here, and you were talking unfounded bollocks regarding my attitude to children. You are unfathomably pissed off, and chose to be offensive about me, because of a random member of the general public's questionable behaviour.

You will have many responses to work through on MN if that's the axe you choose to grind. Off you go then - there are lots to get through tonight alone.

@madwomanintheattic you are right the school could have handled it loads better and perhaps the women should have been possibly less confrontational. And several people here made assumptions about the case because of the wording in the school's own bulletin and the press release. I was trying to think how I would have handled it If I had been the lady and come across a 5 year old looking to be stuck up a tree whether on the lower or upper branches. If I had my mobile I think I would have phoned the school (most have the number on the ouside, but I would have sure as hell waited ouside the railings to observe the school acting on the call and dealing with the errant pupil, if the boy was genuinely "stuck" Iam being hypothetical here now I would call the Fire Service. I would then write to the school and enclose a copy for the boys's mum with the version of events I witnessed. Therefore if the school needed a ticking off it would get one, I wouldn not ever go tho the newspaper and i would like to think ditto of the school and as for bringing in the Police not for this!

Just because you don't say it to her face doesn't make it any better. You still thought the thought. That is a nasty attitiude to have: to automatically assume that anyone who dares question why a school has left a 5 y.o. apparently alone and unattended is a troublemaking loon.

Anyway I am bored of discussing the countless times that you have felt offended and your obvious self-esteem issues. I'll let you have the last post on the thread so that you can feel smug and think that you have won the argument.