Teacher accused of attempting to muder pupil

[stripeyknickersspottysocks]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8646506.stm

Shocking stuff. It does sound like maybe the teacher had some sort of breakdown after putting up with bad behaviour.

I feel so sorry for him. DH is a teacher and I know how stressed he gets. DH is the most placid easy going sensitive man, but even he is brought to his knees by bad behavior.
Obviously I am not minimising what this chap did but, up to a point, I understand.
Hope teh pupil is OK.

The headmaster should not have put him straight in charge of a group of children. The poor man has been off for stress! He even warned them that he could be a danger.
How many of you have been in a situation where you have to have 'control' and a whole group of people turn on you?
We don't know what other stresses he had and maybe he was told by senior staff that he did not 'hack it' then he would have to be sacked or take early retirement.
He should have had a helper with him and I think the school is at fault.

No kidding he had some kind of breakdown but what about the kids who did this? They pushed him and pushed him and fair enough he is being punished for taking it beyond acceptable but what about them?

I know how I would feel if I found out either of my dts had been in that situation. I have noticed that now parents are so aggressive if a teacher dares to criticise their child. Really defensive rather than taking the problem and working it out.

It is why I took great pains to send my dts to a good school - others in this area are like holding pens for future delinquents. Schools can only go so far if the parents aren't there to back them up.

Very true Two. Some classes should really have two teachers in there, so that they have moral support, even if it's just a classroom helper.
When certain kids get together they turn into an ugly crowd and unfortunately they get it from their parents who tell them to ignore authority.
I really do despair, my kids are still young but if they end up in a 'feral' class then I would home educate, when I was in school I was kept back by kids who wanted to mess around rather than do the lessons and I was fed up of having MY learning time wasted by one or two yobs.

You really couldn't make this up. If this was an episode of Waterloo Road people would laugh it off as poor quality script writing and say this could never happen.

I feel so sorry for the teacher who obviously had a breakdown - although not at all do I believe it justifies what he did. He was obviously on the cusp and I can't believe as Ripeberry said that the headmaster put him in charge of a class like that.

I'm a volunteer parent helper at my dts' school Ripeberry - helping out in the P7 class a couple of times a week .

Thankfully this kind of behaviour would be stamped out immediately, the headteacher is quite authoritarian but not so much that it is off putting.

More importantly he has the backing of the parents. Like I said, you can't step back and forget you are responsible for the little darlings after all. Some parents need a good reality check (I used to be on the panel of the lea pupil placement appeals, saw lots of interesting parenting styles there!)

Where was the Leadership Team in this? Where was the support that should have been in place for this clearly ill teacher? It's absolutely shocking that it should come to this before schools like this one are exposed.

A girl giving evidence in court yesterday stated that the ringleaders had orchestrated their behaviour, to see if they could 'break' the teacher after he'd returned from his sick-leave.

Obviously this teacher was ill and what he did is appalling, but how many more teachers are put in situations like this every day? I'm so lucky at our school that we are well-supported by our bosses and the kids are great.

Why do kids do this? What makes them so cruel that they wanted to wind this man up to the point where he cracked? The frightening things is that I'd bet any of the parents of these children would have sworn they were nice kids - but in a group they change. Poor man. Poor boy.

I agree totally, how the hell can a school/class/children get so bad? The boy apparently told him to Fuck Off, I can't believe how children would even dare to disrespect a teacher like that.

I sound like I'm from the 19th century but I'm only 42 and absolutely no-one in my school-not even the 'hard' kids- would have dared to speak like that to a teacher. And it was an ordinary comp.

Poor man, and poor boy. not excusing what the teacher did at all, but if he ends up in prison, it will probably finish him.

I am 37 and can remember at school children in lower sets baiting their teachers in order to provoke reactions. Crying in those cases rather than violence. They were not, in the main, horrible kids but they were bored and unengaged and for the most part marking time until they were old enough to leave.

This is so sad and I agree with Previous posters. My dd(12)saw this in the news and she said it was the teacher's fault. She thought he should have had better control of the class, and stopped this kind of behaviour in it's tracks when it first started. She couldn't see the teacher's point of view at all, even when I pointed out he'd been baited and bullied.

Sadly this poor level of behaviour and disruption is not uncommon in secondary schools. Teacher assaults by pupils are growing in numbers, both verbally nd physically. It often is not related to overal control a teacher has - it is more to do with senior management and they way they support teachers when clsses behave like this.

I myself was physicaly assaulted as a teacher at schoo. I as 7 months pregnant and a 13y slammed a chair into my stomach and then walked out smashing two windows. I was in control of everyone else in that classroom, until the time he lashed out all had been fine, I had calming asked himt o get on with his work - not a shouter here. Teachers of all standings can be assaulted.

However, this does not in anyway condone the actions of this teacher, who obviously had cokpletely lost it. He had already had lengthy time off after cncerns he might hurt someone (he felt it about himself if BBC reports were correct).

I would also question his return to work and why, after such lengthy time off and for the reasons he was off, why he was placed in such class in this situation. i think management need to consider their policies on return to work.

Again thouh - regardless of all this - the teacher was very much in the wrong here. He reacted entirely inappropriately and there appears to be intent to hurt - albeit their maybe some medical concerns behind this reaction at this time.

I hope the teacher is punished appropriately and also gets the medical help they clearly require in order to live safely in society.

I also hope that the other school children were not too traumatied by what they saw, but that they have also realised how their own actions are called into question on this day and in the lessons prior, and how they need to address their own behaviours and have some respect for other people besides themselves.

I really feel for this teacher, he asked for support, he said he didn't feel safe so they were aware that he was on the edge. It's the LEA who should be on trial.

I've just finished a really good book about a teacher who gets bullied by the pupils, and receives no help from the management at the school. He then goes into the school with a gun and kills four children and himself - not a spoiler, BTW, it happens at the start of the book and the rest is about the lead-up to it.

It was a great read. Rupture, by Simon Lelic

I remember seeing a class throwing chairs across the room at a newly qualified teacher in about 1983. This case is extraordinary but that level of classroom disruption is not unknown.

Peaceflower - am shocked at what you say your dd said! Is that a typical attitude among kids that age? (I don't know many 12yos.)

Peaceflower - hope your DD eventually sees why a teacher might flip (although fortunately not generally this extreme) as such poor behaviour from a class of pupils.

what a shame the teacher didn't get help and support rather than trying to kill a pupil.
poor man, poor kid

Remember Goodbye Mr Chips. Only reason why dear old Mr Chips is brought back from retirement to his beloved public school is that the pupils are routinely testing new teachers to see if they can break them and the last one has just had a nervous breakdown. And the author, some time in the 1920s clearly thought this was a likely scenario. Nothing new under the sun. Sadly.

This used to be a favourite with Y6, but it was fiction way back when.

The Lesson

Chaos ruled OK in the classroom
as bravely the teacher walked in
the nooligans ignored him
hid voice was lost in the din

"The theme for today is violence
and homework will be set
I'm going to teach you a lesson
one that you'll never forget"

He picked on a boy who was shouting
and throttled him then and there
then garrotted the girl behind him
(the one with grotty hair)

Then sword in hand he hacked his way
between the chattering rows
"First come, first severed" he declared
"fingers, feet or toes"

He threw the sword at a latecomer
it struck with deadly aim
then pulling out a shotgun
he continued with his game

The first blast cleared the backrow
(where those who skive hang out)
they collapsed like rubber dinghies
when the plug's pulled out

"Please may I leave the room sir?"
a trembling vandal enquired
"Of course you may" said teacher
put the gun to his temple and fired

The Head popped a head round the doorway
to see why a din was being made
nodded understandingly
then tossed in a grenade

And when the ammo was well spent
with blood on every chair
Silence shuffled forward
with its hands up in the air

The teacher surveyed the carnage
the dying and the dead
He waggled a finger severely
"Now let that be a lesson" he said

Roger McGough

But this is a terrible thing he did. Really terrible. I'm afraid I don;t understand it at all. The breakdown yes. But not the violence. Not the extreme violence.

I too find the extreme violence just horrible.

As a former teacher (in the same LEA as this man) I am a little shocked that people are blaming the children. This man had psychiatric help and was declared fit for work. He was also supported in his return to work.
Kids can be tough and can wind teachers up beyond belief, but as the adult in the situation the answer is to leave the room, not smack a child with a dumbbell.

If a parent was being wound up/baited by their own children would we condone the parent beating them half to death and then blame the children?

PS Discipline is no worse than it ever was - it's now that some of the more challenging children don't get sent "away" to borstals or residential schools. The vast majority of teachers/schools seem to be able to manage them without the use of physical violence.

SSM and hulababy

I was taken aback by my dd's views. She is very quiet and reserved and would never join in with any bullying/baiting.

However, she just couldn't see the teacher's point of view at all. To her he is an an authority figure who should be able to keep control.

I remember my chemistry teacher (aka Pyscho M won't use his name)threatening a pupil with a plank of wood with a nail in the end of it

One of many incidents at my school, this was in the 80's

We were top set as well, but the behavoir from some students was appalling