Punched in the stomach by a child

[Aworriedteacher]

I work as a primary school teacher. In my class there are several violent pupils. I've said I'm pregnant, and I've been told one of the pupils won't be in my class unattended. The other one is still there. The child punched me in the stomach yesterday. It hurt for about 30 minutes. The children don't know I'm pregnant yet, I'm hoping they'll be more careful when they know? They are only 5-6 year olds. But is this dangerous? I feel really upset about it, but I don't know what to do.

Speak to your employer. You are entitled to special protection as you're pregnant. These children should either be removed or you should be given extra support.

Yes you really must speak to your employer and arrangements MUST be made to safe guard YOU and your unborn child.

I hope you’re ok. I would tell your Head so that you get protected.
I didn’t get punched in stomach but hit in it with a heavy hold-all, a kid had it on their shoulder then swung round and clobbered me with it by mistake. I was 18 weeks.
Anyway, I went docs to checked out and all was fine but I was v upset. Doc said a pregnancy can survive a 30mph crash.

Take it easy and be kind to yourself xx

The thing is, I did already. My head has told me one of the children will not be in the class, but brushed me off when I mentioned concerns with the other one. I mentioned to a member of the management team I had been hit yesterday, I was told to have more awareness of where the child was, and to angle myself away from the child. As if it didn't matter at all. They made me feel like I'm over reacting. I really don't think I am?

I don’t think you are overreacting. Can you call your midwife and ask for a KB blood test to make sure the trauma hasn’t caused your baby to bleed?

This is completely unacceptable. Your employer has a duty of care not to place you in this position.

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous in this day and age, where a pregnant teacher has no protection from violent children?! Very young ones none the less? Absolutely shocking.

I hope you're ok and that your baby is ok.

Bloody hell. Is there a H&S reporting system for incidents like this? Can you ask for a risk assessment? Please don't rely on the children being more careful when they know - not every child has that capacity.

Unacceptable. Surely this contravenes your risk assessment given the circumstances?

We have this in my school with some v violent 5/6 yr olds and the teacher who is preg is not allowed to be involved in anything to do with them for her safety as they have assaulted multiple staff recently. Which is how it should be for her safety

Can you speak to your union? The school should be putting measures in place to ensure you are safe.

Get signed off by your GP.

@GrumpyHoonMain I thought that. If they're not taking steps to make sure it won't happen again (and actually suggesting it was your fault - the cheek!), I'm not sure what else you can do.

Hi primary teacher here - I’m lucky to have a very calm class but there are tricky children in the school and you are absolutely not making a fuss. I think it’s unacceptable how your school are reacting. You should not be in this situation and I do think you should get the union perspective. I know what it is like and you don’t want to create problems
-but you need to put yourself first. You could also get signed off until it gets sorted.

You come first. I think in our job we put so much on the line -but in this situation you have to put yourself first. Good luck.

Very unfair of management imo.
I was made to feel like I was overreacting to bumps etc when I was pregnant too. It just makes you feel like a spoiled drama queen which isn't the case at all.

I am rhesus negative and every time I had even the slightest bump I had to go to hospital for a jag. So it affected my work quite a bit. They ended up getting HR to make me take early maternity leave.

This is absolutely unacceptable. Is there some kind of teacher support? In other countries you'd be signed off for the rest of your pregnancy (with full pay!)

OP:
Firstly complete an incident report following the assault and ask to be given feedback (written if you prefer) on the investigation.
Secondly, please ask your head teacher for a copy of the pregnancy risk assessment that they should have completed. Ensure that it covers risks of violence and aggression and how those risks are going to be managed. Consider whether the plan to manage it is sufficient based upon yesterday's incident.
Thirdly, if there are any problems with the above contact your union and the council's health and safety lead for schools.
Use this website for guidance:
www.hse.gov.uk/mothers/#

Call your union - I was in the same position and my union were incredible and the SLT absolutely rolled over as soon as they were involved because they knew they hadn't been playing by the rules.
The second you are pregnant they should be risk assessing and adapting for you if needed, I had a violent child removed from my class.

You absolutely should be taking this further, and your leadership team has badly let you down.

Don’t be afraid to push - get your union involved if you need back up support. Don’t just “mention” incidents, formally report them. Do you have email? If so, email your line manager detailing the incident and asking to see the pregnancy risk assessment as you feel that the risks of having the child in your class with no extra support haven’t been adequately captured based on the incident on the Xth Jan where they got you in the stomach, as reported verbally to Y on blah blah blah.

Nope not on at all, management need to do more. I had a similar incident with a child when I was pregnant and management took it extremely seriously, called in the child's parent etc. Have you seen your midwife?

While you shouldn't be put in this position, I wouldn't worry in the slightest about your pregnancy from this.

If it were that easy to terminate a pregnancy, we'd have no need for abortion surgeries and medications. The old "falling down the stairs" and "punch in the stomach" tricks were almost always failures.