Pretty sadistic story over at The Times. A seven year old girl is tied up by school bullies and whipped with skipping ropes. What should the school do?
a) Inform the parents of all children involved of the nature of the incident.
b) Do feck all.
c) Inform the parents but neglect to tell the full details.
The headmaster took option c) and failed to tell the parents the nature of the incident. A dinner lady at the school, who had witnessed the incident, took it upon herself to tell the parents of the girl the details. The school has now suspended the dinner lady.
Is it just me, or have the school failed this child's safety, and their responsibility to be open and transparent with the parents?
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I Agree With Roy Hattersley!
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I don't recall ever agreeing with Roy Hattersley on anything. Until today.
His article in today's Observer on the dangers of a Hung Parliament is a
must re...
3 hours ago
3 comments:
I don't know but there's this guy who just graduated with a THIRD in Modern History & Politics. LOL
He must be a clever chap, maybe you should ask him
I suspect this story of being reported in a deliberately tendentious way - on the part of the Times that is.
The young girl went home with a note from the headmaster, which didn't mention that she was tied up. Presumably the whipping would have been self-evident, and/or was mentioned in the note. The Times ia pretty vague on what was included / wasn't included.
There's also no discussion of the time-frame within which all of this happened. How long between the incident and the dinner lady approaching the young girls' parents? A day? A few days?
It is conceivable that the school administration wanted to sort out the discipline of the four boys before calling in the young girls' parents to explain to them the actions that had been taken, to reassure them.
Basically what I'm saying is, there's a whole rake of variables and potentials we don't know, because the Times doesn't record them. So I would be cautious in rushing to judgment.
As for the dinner lady, I'd be curious to know under what rules they are going to punish her. Teachers call home to parents all the time on the subject of bullying, and there's no embargo (so far as I know) on mentioning the names of other children involved - so long as its not speculation.
As I said, the story doesn't ring true from my experience of how schools work.
Unfortunately this is all too common an incident, as several internet videos will attest.
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