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

Do you have kids ?

Do you think that maybe your daughter is feeding off your hysteria?

You have overstepped the mark on getting statements from other children. That's not for you to do, that's for the school.

If the level of trust you have is such that you are keeping your daughter off school the day of that lesson, I suggest it might be time to look for a new school.

Exactly! That was my main take from the OP :)

Yep, we had one teacher who would chuck his board rubber if he thought you weren’t paying attention. And it wasn’t a big deal.

Wow, I’m surprised how many people think it’s ok for teachers to throw things at students.

Old school board rubbers were a block of wood with thick felt on one side. Those things were blooming heavy. Our history teacher had a particularly good aim. Then there was our Chemistry teacher who would creep up behind you and shout full volume into your ear. That was a bit dangerous when handling a Bunsen burner.

I think your autocorrect is playing up and has replaced the word 'knife' or 'bullet' with 'pen'.

I'd email my MP and then Kier himself.

OP, have you considered homeschooling? Or becoming Amish?

I haven't flounce anywhere, and I don't expect everyone to agree with me, however I didn't expect a 'pack of wolves' response.
My daughter is very resilient, she's battled battles I hope none of you ever have to go through! That aside, the highlighter pen narrowly missed her face, as she had her cheek resting in her hand. I didn't conduct my own 'interviews' like the police, directly to the kids... I reached out to the parents and I did this because a child in that class reached out to my daughter stating that she was instructed on certain things to write in her statement of events. The other child who got hit also has gone on to say she was told to only write about my daughter and not herself. That's why I said it seemed as a cover up was happening.
I truly hope none of you are teachers! If you can't see that throwing anything at a child, for any reason is wrong... I'm not the problem here!
Regarding the absence of the day - our daughter point blank refused for 5 weeks to attend school on that day, because she doesn't feel safe... YES, SAFE, around that teacher.
It's been confirmed it wasn't done for a laugh, and none of the kids in that class were expecting it! It was thrown in a frissbee type throw with the intention of hitting her, AFTER my daughter had answered her question!

The teacher shouldn't have thrown a pen or anything else at children and even though the school are closing ranks she's probably been told not to do it again. Your DD needs to get a grip and move on.

No need to be a total dick.

'It was a highlighter not a grenade' made me snort my tea!

No wonder teachers are leaving in droves if they have to put up with this absolute shit. And 'emotionally shook up' DD needs to get a grip, as do you.

It didn’t leave a mark because it was a highlighter… not because she had her blazer on.

I’m guessing your DD cannot face the music teacher because she’s embarrassed… because her mum has made a level two complaint against the teacher.

What outcome was you hoping for?

Crikey, we had chalk, books, yard sticks and anything else within grabbing distance thrown at us. We lived, we didn't develop life long MH issues because of it. In fact not one of us gave it a second thought.

The school is in the wrong and that's really all that's relevant. It's not a game for the teacher to throw things at the children.

No of course it’s not the 80s anymore. I was punched in the back twice by different teachers at a Grammar school and told I was stupid. I was upset but never told my parents. I just went back to school the next day. I was 11. Of course now they’d be rightly sacked.

This is not comparable. What are we showing our kids by pandering to them and not teaching them resilience. God help her if she ever works with the public!

No-one should be throwing anything at your daughter if it happened to you it would be assault why is school any different?

I don’t think anyone thinks it’s ‘ok’, it clearly isn’t ideal (if it wasn’t part of a game).
But complaining to the governors, describing her child as ‘emotionally shook up’, keeping her child off school one day every week and requesting another teacher for the class is a ridiculous overreaction. An apology would suffice.

Oh @Tiredallthetimelaura sorry but I do agree with those who say you are overreacting.

It’s not possible that your child was injured, to start with. It is possible that the pen was thrown to say to the child “highlight the right answer” or as some other kind of classroom game. Yes it was inappropriate by the sounds. But I used to throw a soft toy to students to get them to answer an MFL question (one that each would answer differently like when’s your birthday). And occasionally I caught a student by surprise (unintentionally). It was all OK I think, or I thought. But maybe they were emotionally shaken up by my actions?

Seriously tho, you have complained to the school and they need to answer that. The teacher should not throw pens. They should apologise to your DD. Keeping her out of school one day a week is a big overreaction. And collecting statements from other children is totally out of order, sorry.

Ah well op, you clearly can't or won't see sense. Good luck with your daughter infiture, I hope she recovers quickly from her traumatic experience.

But it seems you did develop the idea that it's fine for adults to throw things at children. Not really credible.

Are you a teacher from the 70s

She probably was with the upbringing she's had. Or saw it as a good opportunity to miss school and get some entertainment from her mum kicking off.

It's worrying what this generation is like. A teacher at our school (well liked) threw a pen in anger at a teenager backchatting once, he apologised genuinely after, the kid asked to chuck one back at him and he let him and then at the end of the class our friend group privately had a chat about not telling anyone incase he got in trouble. We all had enough respect for him to realise it could've got him in trouble (it actually did leave a mark) but the boy just found it funny.

I'm serious. This incident requires a proportional response so I would settle for nothing less.

Show me where I said that?