Incident at school advice needed please

[user1465410703]

Hi all hope I am posting in the right place.

On Thursday I had a phone call at work to say my 8 year old son had a "collision" he's broken his front teeth and could I collect him. That's all the information I got and I made it to school as fast as I could.
When I got to school my son was standing in the foyer with only two 8 year old girls to comfort him. He was in shock and no adult was present to hand him over to me or explain in further detail of what happened. I had to come back through reception so decided to ask them if they knew to which they said they had no idea then within 10 seconds they said my son had been messing around. At this point I just wanted to get my very upset child out and to the dentist. Luckily I managed to get him seen within a couple of hours. On our way there my son told me than another boy had thrown a plastic ball in his face. My child is very forgiving and said I don't think he did it on purpose. The dentist has temporary fixed the broken tooth and I have to take him back multipul times over the next few months for more perminant dental work to let his tooth heal.
The next morning I went into school as I wanted answers. I asked his class teacher who also did not know so I asked him to find someone who did. I also asked if the boys parents were aware that he had knocked a child's tooth out that day he said no. I then asked for a copy of the accident form so he went to find the first aider who dealt with it.
By this time I wasn't happy at all as I was getting nowhere. I spoke to the first aider, she confirmed a child had thrown something at him but as he had said it was accidental no further action was taken. I asked her for the accident form copy but she said that it was being filled out that day as he had to have dental work??? According to their online policy it states any injury above the neck is classed as a head injury which requires a incident report form filled out, and a copy sent home to the parent. When I questioned her about this she didn't really have an answer. Or an answer to why she left a child in shock with no adult again she just said she was sorry.
I have an appointment with the head teacher tomorrow to discuss it all but want to know , was they right to not fill out an accident form? And only to do so because he had to have outside treatment? Also was they aloud to leave him on his own? Would you want to be told if your child had knocked out another child's tooth, I would especially as it being an adult tooth. I don't want to go in tomorrow firing all these things at them if they was well within their rights as a school to treat him that way.
I don't feel like I should just have to drop this.
Sorry if I have gone on a bit !

Any advise would be appreciated

onelastpigout, I assume if one of your tooth was knocked out, you would quietly clean up the mess and go to the dentist without any fuss....

How can any parent be so level headed if one of your child's adult tooth was knocked out and experience not enough support from school?

grrrrr. your post made me so angry!!!

If it was an accident then I think the parents of the other boy should be told. Not because he needs telling off but because he may well need support. My almost 8 year old DD would have been distraught if she'd caused an injury to one of her classmates, even by accident. I'd want to know so that I could comfort her and support her.

Obviously if she'd done it deliberately then I'd want to know too. If only so I could lecture her and then her.

Hello.

The ball in question was a toy not any school equipment. the boy in question didn't maliciously aim for his face it was more a case of the boy was throwing balls pretending he was in Pokemon and my son was in the wrong place at the wrong time. However that doesn't take away the fact the my child has lost a tooth and lessons need to be learnt from it. I have been in to the head teacher today who actually was very approachable and seemed quite shocked him self how the staff that day handled everything. He's called a school assembly banning the toy that was thrown and is talking to them about the dangers of just throwing things especially unexpectedly. He's also sending letters home to parents.
He was very apologetic that my son was left with only 2 children and said the first aider was meant to stay with him and he will be speaking to her also. It didn't even have to be her or any teacher but an adult should have been there. He was very reluctant to inform the boys parents but has agreed to do so. I have said it's not because he needs to be in trouble but as a parent I would like to know so that I can discuss with my child what has happened and the concenquences such games can cause. I finally got the accident report form which they said my child should have gave me. I disagreed and said that the adult hand over person should have given it me and he did agree. I said the first aider said she hadn't done it on the day but he said she had and he doesn't know why she said that. Maybe he was covering for her I will never know. Over all I do hope some lessons can be learnt so that this doesn't happen again
Thanks everyone for the kind words and advise. X

I am glad that it has been sorted.
Hope your ds gets better soon.

I agree, if I was a parent of the child who injured other child severely, I would like to know the fact and how, from school, rather than hearing it from some grapevine few weeks later.

Smellyboot 07.36

Shock is a very mis used term. It's a dangerous condition after a serious injury

Either people mean shock, in the way we all understand perfectly well, or it means a medical emergency of its own. It does not actually matter here, under the circumstances, which it was. and in my opinion your point of view is quibbling.

It hardly sounds as though the staff at this school would have known the least thing about technically defined medical shock, or even any kind of shock in either case.

Any one who has just had their teeth knocked out, out of the blue, and their mouth and head bashed with enough force to do that, knows just how horrible it is and how very low it leaves the affected person feeling, often for a very long time indeed.

This child's teeth will never be what they would have been for the rest of his life.

User,

It was ridiculous to have a policy to give the report to your C to give to you, if that was true, but I am glad the HT listened to you. Well done for taking it up.

I hope your dc will recover well.

We have to complete an accident form for any treatment we provide to a child, even it is only an antiseptic wipe. It gets written up in the first aid log and also on an incident form which we hand to the class teacher who will pass on to mum. My kids attend the school i work in and occasionally i will get a phone call from them to say they have forgotten to give me a note.

For something like that we would have sat and waited with them until you had arrived or got someone else to if needed. So for them to not really know whats happened or where to forms are is completely unacceptable. I would want an apology and reassurance given that procedures would be reviewed and all staff informed of the correct procedure to take following an injury of any kind (accident or not and most injuries at school are accidents).

I hope he is ok. xx

by the by Smellyboot what is the correct medical word for that feeling after something frightening has happened, where you can even feel chilled?

Upset. The child was probably very upset and possibly frightened and a bit shaken. He was probably worried that he was in trouble too. Maybe he knew they were playing with a toy brought in from home.
I have dealt with DC and adults as a first aider that have had teeth knocked out or chipped etc. yes the school procedures failed in many ways, but hysteria doesn't help. It appeared that the child who threw the 'ball the weight of a bauble' had in fact brought in a toy to school that they shouldn't have. That's not allowed at our school. He seems to have thrown it smack in the face of OPs child. Freak incident in that it was hard enough to knock a tooth out. Very poor that first aider left him, but we don't know why. Maybe that person was called away - I have never known a first aider to leave a child before parent collected, but maybe she had a class to teach or had to sort cover?
Best thing with knocked out teeth is to get to dentist ASAP. To me I still maintain that the paperwork could be done the next morning if not at the time with an update on what happened eg. Parent took straight to dentist
Every situation is unique and the details make a huge difference.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary says:

Shock

1: a sudden upsetting or surprising event or experience, or the resulting feeling.
2: an acute medical condition associated with a fall in blood pressure, caused by loss of blood, severe burns, sudden emotional stress, etc.

I've also checked first aid manual. It says:

Causes of shock: Heart Attack, Severe Bleeding(internal, external), Severe burns, Severe Fracture, Severe Vomiting and Diarrhoea.
There are also other conditions which cause shock due to rapid dilation of the arteries causing a drop in blood pressure. E.g. severe pain and infection.

So in theory, child who has lost an adult tooth by a strong force can go into shock, no? He experienced sudden emotional stress, severe pain, also could have broken facial bone.

If he was that bad then have been calling an ambulance never mind a parent. He wouldn't be standing in the foyer waiting for his mum.
Thats just daft nitpicking.
Shock is a medical term for a life threatening condition. As I said prevIously it is widely mis used in error for when some one has had a bit of a shock. If you phone 999 and say you have some one in shock following an incident they will need to work out if you actually mean it. If it's a first aider then they should known the difference.
The school procedures were weak and the first aider left him on his own. He/she was rather negligent to leave an upset shaken child on his own with no adult. School have sorted it. End of story.

"As I said prevIously it is widely mis used in error for when some one has had a bit of a shock."

You are using the word as others have used in the post. (I assume you are not using as in acute medical emergency.) You were the one nitpicking first.
Nobody has used this term wrongly on this thread, imo.

Okay so it would have been better if the paperwork was completed promptly and someone had been with your son when you arrived. I don't really understand what any of this would have changed, though. It sounds as if you are deflecting some of the anger you feel about this happening on to the teachers who aren't really responsible for any of it.

I don't recognise all this talk of "shock", head injuries, facial bone fractures, etc. He got hit in the face with a ball and has damaged teeth. The school correctly called a parent who took him to a dentist. The important details all seem to have been attended to and I certainly wouldn't be choosing this as a key battleground over which to fight with the school.

smellyboot You have completely redefined the term "shock" to limit it a severe medical condition, to the point that I had to check that I was not born in a parallel universe

www.healthguidance.org/entry/13950/1/Dealing-With-Shock.html