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

I would insist on meeting the head teacher and chair of governor. I would tell them I expect an apology at that meeting and confirmation that the teacher has been disciplined and that if it’s not forthcoming you will report the matter to the police as assault

its not a game, it’s simply not acceptable behaviour

One of the teacher in my child's primary school threw SWEETS and little rubber character toy at the children!

Where do I complain! The children must be traumatised, and could have lost an eye!

Says the head, the executive principal, says a classroom full of kids and said LADO!

What was it that she found emotionally hard to deal with? What strategies has she tried to help her out the incident into perspective and move on?

How do you know? Where you there?

I hate to break this to you, but children aren’t very credible witnesses. Over a decade teaching secondary and you soon realise that children skew things when re-telling events to their parents. Heck, even I did it when I was at school! ”This teacher was so mean to me mum and shouted at me for NO reason” when I knew dam well I’d been talking when I shouldn’t have been.

Are you really that naive?? Actually, don’t answer that. I’ve already worked out what type of parent you are.

Imagine the utter waste of all those people's time over a highlighter throw.

Teenagers are absolutely brilliant at not telling the whole truth 😉

Was the pen on fire? Electrified? Being chased by rabid bees?

Tell that to the quiet studious girl who received a cut face from the bunch of keys thrown by a teacher who missed his aim and got her instead that i witnessed in the 80's.
Wasn't acceptable then and not acceptable now .

I once had a heavy maths book thrown at me by a teacher, and this was in 2010.

At her

Nobody’s face ever got cut by a highlighter pen.

You’ve let her down in teaching her resilience.

No wonder all the teachers are leaving.

If throwing pens at children is your idea of fun, you really need to get out more.

Surely you just get the kids to come and get a pen from your desk?

And how do you know that almost every teacher you know throws pens to hand them out? Have you done a survey in the staffroom? It's not a topic of conversation that's ever come up amongst my colleagues, but I've observed a lot of lessons and never seen it happen.

They won’t accept your statements from the kids because when they’re collected in school they make sure the kids don’t chat about it beforehand, either amongst themselves or with the teacher.

Teachers aren't leaving the profession because parents object to having pens thrown at their children...

But the EMOTIONAL scars, Blossom! Like Elvis, they leave one all shook up.

You know if that happens the HoE (‘s secretary) will just send it straight to the Head Teacher?

omg how awful

my DS is in his exam year and he has 6 teachers in 2 years. get over your precious nonsense and focus on what matters. trust me when your precious baby is in exam years you will have more to worry about than a flying pen

Part of the reason they are leaving is because parents are making life a living hell by complaining about everything.

What do you want to happen?

Was it? I thought you said the teacher explained it was part of a game? I'm a teacher and have done that before as well, with various objects... the person with the item asks the question and throws it to the person who answers. It's a bit naff tbh but I can't imagine anyone getting in touch with LADO over my rubbish classroom game!

Of all the pathetic posts I've read on MN this one is up there with the best.

No wonder so many kids these days can't cope with life when their parents are setting an example like this.

Totally unacceptable behaviour by the teacher. What did LADO say? Do they have an appeals process?

There are very few people in this world who could cause someone harm by throwing a highlighter pen at a clothed arm.
So I’ll ask again, what do you think the teacher’s intention was? It clearly wasn’t to cause harm to your daughter, as she would have done something different to throwing a highlighter pen at her arm. So what do you think she wanted to achieve?
And what outcome are you looking for? Do you want the teacher to leave her post?