Intervening in a fight

[fightworry]

Can anyone please advise what the standard protocol is for handling a fight in school (Yr 7/8 children) please.

A child with SEN (ASD/ sensory issues) who I shall call Boy A had been provoked all morning by another boy (Boy B) who was told by the staff to leave Boy A alone. At break time it was wet play and all children were crowded into 2 classrooms (Boy A does not like crowds/noise). Boy A went into one classroom, saw a child there he had difficulties with so did the right thing and went into the other classroom. Unfortunately Boy B was there, approached him and carried on provoking and taunting him. Boy A repeatedly asked to be left alone but Boy B kept saying 'make me then' etc..

Boy A who has a very literal understanding then pushed Boy B in an attempt to make him go away and a fight broke out between them. Boy A had a TA supporting him who ran out of the class to get assistance and made no attempt to de-escalate the situation, verbally or otherwise.

The fight was broken up by another boy before staff arrived. Boy A was very upset and asked why the TA did not help him but the TA said that she was not allowed to intervene. Is this correct?

Boy A was immediately excluded for fighting and Boy B received a lunchtime detention a few days later.
The TA was fairly new to the school and had only spent 15 minutes with boy A before that day (was not his regular TA).

[TheNebulousBoojum]

Only way child B should come into this is to ask school what strategies they are going to use to prevent bear-baiting and personal attacks on child A by students for their own entertainment.

[fightworry]

Neb the school permanently excluded Boy A shortly afterwards.
The parents had previously pointed out that a lot of incidents seen were as a result of other children 'winding him up' and that these needed to be addressed .

[bigTillyMint]

What a sad story for boy A. The school is clearly in the wrong and did not make reasonable adjustments for him - it was boy B on this occasion, but could have been others involved leading to permanent exclusion.

Out of interest, did it get recorded as a PE or did he get shipped out quickly to a PRU or SS (as our LA do to avoid PEs)?

[fightworry]

Bit complicated Tilly. It was recorded as an PE. He couldn't go to the PRU as the school had sent him there for a while previously and it was agreed that it was the wrong environment.

[TheNebulousBoojum]

So where is Boy A now, is he being taken care of, has he got a better placement that a school that wasn't prepared to offer the basics needed for him to cope?
Ideally, as a parent, I'd be complaining to the LA Inclusion team and the governors of the school in order for them to ask searching questions of the school and ensure that they take responsibility for the failure.
But my first priority would be making sure that my DS was in the best possible place, physically and emotionally, to thrive. An indifferent and badly-organised school looking for quick solutions would not be it.
What a sad, avoidable mess.

[sashh]

CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Actually what I was thinking is that if boy B was bullying boy A because of the colour of his skin then this would have been stopped.

Winding up an ASD child is sheer discrimination and bullying all in one.

If I was boy A's parents I'd be calling the police to report a hate crime.

[CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs]

Yep, I would be too, Sassh

[float62]

Oh god, another ASD child without an education. The third ASD child recently permanently excluded that is being written about on MN in the past couple of days alone. Completely agree with couthy on her points. I think that we need more SSs and AS units and schools are going to have to admit in the first place that they can't manage these children appropriately rather than going through the motions of inclusion before they spit the child out, blaming the child and causing so much long-term emotional damage.