My child was hit by a pen, thrown by a teacher

[Tiredallthetimelaura]

So my daughter who is in year 8 was in a lesson when her teacher 'cold called' her a question. My daughter responded she didn't know the answer and the teacher then threw a highlighter pen at her, hitting her on the arm. The teacher then did it again to another student, also hitting them on the arm. We have reached level 2 of a complaint, but it's always investigated by management within the academy. The school keep down playing what happened and not investigating what we ask. This teacher is still teaching, although my daughter isn't going in on the day of that lesson, which is greatly affecting her attendance. The school said they would move my daughter so she could do a different lesson (double Maths or double English), but we said no! This feels like a punishment to our daughter. She wants to do that lesson, just not with that teacher... and we agree.
Any advice on what/how the school legally should be handling this? Happy to answer any further questions Xx

Your child is not resilient OP. If she was, she wouldn’t be refusing to go to school one day a week because a highlighter pen hit her arm.

Nothing - but I do hope as she gets older she learns to not be so "shook up and embarrassed" by things like this as there will be worse things in life to deal with and a little resilience is definitely worth having.

Tiredallthetimelaura · Today 21:10

pollyglot · Today 21:00
Oh dear, , not the sharpest highlighter in the box, are we? What a very silly bunch of comments. I have said on numerous occasions that I was a teacher for 47 years. An extremely successful one, in fact...the number of "failures" (a word I hate to use, as it simply means passing through the draughting gates of public exams), at Common Entrance and Scholarship, GCSEs, A Levels, including the Cambridge International A and A2 exams, I can count on one hand. Mostly As and As. One student in the Cambridge International A2 exam was top in the WORLD in Classical Studies. Not only an outstanding pass rate, but happy and fulfilled students. At Prep School, we played games. Running games, dancing, marching, battle re-enactments. Roman legions v. Barbarians in the woods after dark...resulting in occasional sprained ankles, scratches...you know, actual injuries. No-one cared. It's part of being a kid.*
When I first came to the UK, I was shocked at how "pulpy" British kids were. Flabby, pale, over-protected, precious. Now I know why. They are not allowed to take risks. I notice though that private school parents are a great deal more accepting, and never make a fuss...Broken finger? Oh dear, well, he won't do THAT again.
Of course teachers can make mistakes - I just don't think the gross exaggeration helps. My son's yr 7 PE teacher refused to believe that his asthma was too bad to do cross-country, and forced him to run. He almost died. Now that is an issue to make a fuss about, and I did. Lessons were learned.

Your just nasty! Oh and just for reference , my daughter also has chronic asthma and does cross country for her school and she's never complained once! That's called RESILIENCE!
As you can tell she's very sporty, she enjoys games, competitions and thrives at being competitive... on the field!
Not in a music lesson where her only crime was not knowing the answer to a question!

"Your(sic) just nasty", OP? For stating the truth?

I am prepared to bet that your daughter has not had eleven near-death experiences with her asthma. Unconscious, blue, not breathing, voided bowels and bladder, blue-lighted to hospital for a week on oxygen and massive doses of prednisone. Has she?
Has she ever staggered in from the garden, blue-lipped, tears gushing, gasping
"Mummy, don't let me die", and then passing out and ceasing to breathe?
Well, has she?

Don't tell me about asthmatic children. I have lived through the nightmare.

And yet my son continued to live an active life, and I had to believe that all would be well. "Keep the faith", my oncologist brother told me. He went hunting deer overnight in the remote bush, surfing, swimming champ. And very, very empathetic to others' pain as a result of his experience.

Oh, and the paediatrician warned me that his growth and fertility would be affected by the 80-mg doses of prednisone. He's 6'4, 100 kg, has 6 children.

And the advice is that you should aim for an apology from the teacher and to get your DD back into her lessons as soon as possible.
Good advice.

Whether teacher is willing is another question. If she'd apologised in the first place it's quite possible the whole thing wouldn't have blown up at all.

It isn't down to us that this has dragged on we've had half terms, investigations that have been moved on and elevated not by us but by HQ investigators, LADOS involvement... because contrary to belief this is actually pretty serious. I'm being baited into saying I want this teacher sacked so the same names who keep asking can jump on me... some more! I'm not going to bite! I innocently came here to see if anyone had possibly dealt with anything like this before, so I could seek advice about it, because funnily enough, its not the 70s, 80s or 90s anymore, so finding information on how this should be handled and outcomes aren't readily available. Because most people no its not acceptable to throw anything at anyone. It wasn't an accident and it wasn't a game. If my daughter went into school and reported I'd thrown something at her, school would be on me like a cheap suit!

Ex-teacher and now school governor. My advice upthread was ask for an apology, work out a way forward with the teacher and move on. You won’t know if she’s faced disciplinary action as the school rightly won’t say and they’re not going to re-timetable now either. No it shouldn’t have happened, but you now need to move forward and work with the school to resolve it unless you’re prepared to move schools.

@Pollyglot Of course teachers can make mistakes - I just don't think the gross exaggeration helps. My son's yr 7 PE teacher refused to believe that his asthma was too bad to do cross-country, and forced him to run. He almost died. Now that is an issue to make a fuss about, and I did. Lessons were learned.

Wondering if the PE teacher started off throwing pens...got to start somewhere and early intervention is key to prevention. Todays pen thrower can quickly evolve into tomorrow's teacher who ignored danger signs to stamp his authority on your son. Thankfully, teachers like this are few and far between. How much easier would it have been for your son if the teachers unacceptAble behaviour had been stopped at an earlier stage. You are right this could have had the most serious of consequences. That's why it needs to be stopped before it escalates.

Agree. Fuss about nothing. Though ideally teachers won't throw things.
You're teaching your daughter weedyness
Otherwise known as lack of resilience

It was a pen. It hit her arm
FFS. Get over yourself.

The OP says 'this teacher is still teaching', which seems to imply the opinion that one insignificant action should change this.

But it IS down to you. You could've easily agreed to have a mediation meeting with the teacher, the SLT and your daughter, accepted an apology and an assurance that there would never be a repeat of what happened, then all moved on. But instead you've pulled your daughter out of school one day a week in a clear attempt to force the school to get rid of that teacher from that particular class and you roped the rest of the class in to give statements. Those are not the actions of a parent who isn't intent on dragging things out until the bitter end. Deep down you want the teacher sacked but that is unlikely to happen and the loser in all this is your DD who is missing crucial learning one day a week.

Read my post where I state - my daughter has been through and overcome things most adults have never!
This isn't a competition on who's child has been the most poorly, however, yes we have been in that position, she also has level 6 allergies. I also have a son who's deaf and partially sighted with Nero difficulties due to oxygen starvation due to meningitis, and our middle child is ASD.
Perhaps go back and read your responses to me regarding this situation, and see how you'd feel. Many of you jumped on a band wagon to bash me and a child. It's been completely unjustified!

Of course the OP wants her to lose her job. It’s clear from her posts. It would probably be better to just own that, and people could advise accordingly. The wide eyed ‘I don’t know what I want to happen’ isn’t helping anyone.

The most sensible response.

Wondering if the PE teacher started off throwing pens...got to start somewhere and early intervention is key to prevention. Todays pen thrower can quickly evolve into tomorrow's teacher who ignored danger signs to stamp his authority on your son. Thankfully, teachers like this are few and far between. How much easier would it have been for your son if the teachers unacceptAble behaviour had been stopped at an earlier stage. You are right this could have had the most serious of consequences. That's why it needs to be stopped before it escalates.

You cannot be serious!! How can you extrapolate that scenario from one pen toss?? Do you also believe that pen throwing leads to mass-murder?

It actually is classed as a crime. Type it in your search bar, then come back

Yep. I'm a teacher and I agree. She definitely shouldn't have done it, she will definitely have faced consequences for it which you are not privy to.

You're only choice is to cooperate with the school to resolve. I would simply encourage grace in this situation. Your daughter seems to be thriving in other aspects of her school life so it would be a shame to move her but if you aren't prepared to move forward at all then that is your obvious choice.

Maybe it’s prison the OP is gunning for, not just dismissal.

As is pushing a pushchair on the pavement, but yolo.

Then make a police report, strengthens your wishes of dismissal and stop wasting peoples time asking for advise when you don’t want it at all.

you have rejected literally everything.

time waster

Why bother with a criminal justice system when we can just type things into a search bar!

OP...I fear you are That Parent. Damned with faint praise. You have entirely over-reacted, evidently wishing to glean approval not only from school parents, but also anonymous crowds. You could have resolved this in a civilised manner, as I did with the P.E. teacher, whose actions could have killed my son...and nearly did. Ridiculous storm in a teacup.

The teacher is not going to get dismissed, it is not serious enough for that. She may face some disciplinary action, as others have said you won’t get to find out about it, but it will not be dismissal.

The police will not be interested, they will say that this is an employment matter in the first instance and needs to be dealt with as such.

So what you should probably do is either, accept the school’s suggestion of child moving to a different subject for that period, or just let it go!

Given that many schools only have one music teacher, it’s quite likely that this teacher will continue to teach her in future years. So my suggestion would be to just let it go.

It’s a crime to sing happy birthday in a restaurant, but people do that up and down the country every day.
Let’s be realistic about crime shall we?

It was a silly thing for the teacher to do. But no-one was hurt. OP's daughter wasn’t the only one it happened to so she has no reason to think the teacher is picking on her. OP complained so the teacher will know she mustn’t do it again.

That is all that’s needed. To treat it as if it’s a huge incident that would cause OP's daughter to feel unsafe is just ridiculous.