Saturday 21 January 2012

This Is ‘A Major Incident’? Really?

A boy was suspended from primary school for a day for taking in a toy gun.
Stuart Thomson, ten, spent a day at home after he was excluded from Hazelmere Junior School in Hawthorn Avenue, Colchester.
A…what? A toy gun?

Well, maybe we are talking about one of those ultra-realistic looking weap…


Oh.
His mother, Samantha Patterson, of Laburnum Grove, Colchester, believes the school has overreacted to the toy, which fires foam “bullets”. She said: “He had it in his bag and did not fire it, but the headteacher said it was a major incident.
Christ, talk about hyperbole! What is she going to call a fight between pupils? A fire? A terrorist attack?

She seems to be an exceptionally dim woman, even by the usual standards of head teachers:
Headteacher Jenny Firth defended the decision saying no guns, not even toys, should be taken into school.
She said: “As a school we have a duty of care to the children and whatever type of gun it was, it should not have been taken to school.
You don’t know how much damage could be done and we need to send the message it is unacceptable to bring it in. ”
Well, perhaps if you’d sent that message before, setting out what is and is not acceptable to bring to school, the kid wouldn’t have thought he could?
“There was an incident a few years ago when we thought there was a worse weapon and we did have to call police.
Other children may have more real guns at home and if they bring them in, a child could have an eye taken out.”
We must think of the chiiiilllldreeeen!!!!!

14 comments:

Pavlov's Cat said...

Other children may have more real guns at home

More real? Is there a sliding scale now, it's either a gun or it isn't. Perhaps she meant they might bring in a 1:1 replica Airsoft MP5 (still not a gun) and that would make them soil their panties.

Or maybe at home they have more real guns as well as toy guns, as we know the UK is over run with handguns as was shown in Sherlock we all keep a 9mm in the kitchen draw next to the fish slice.

this woman is obviously related to the writers on the DM who have a fainting attack at the merest mention of a GEE. YOU. EN.

wv. suess

Macheath said...

...an exceptionally dim woman, even by the usual standards of head teachers

My family - and the Spouse's, for that matter - have been in education for generations and have seen the inexorable rise of the non-teaching head. In oday's state sector, heads are often recruited for their command of management-speak and an ability to look good in local TV interviews.

Put these corporate greasy-pole-dancers in charge of a school and you will have decisions made primarily on political grounds rather than assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Radiate Tor said...

A situation courting lethal complications but merciful providence kept plod ignorant.

Captain Haddock said...

Silly bitch !!!!!!

Will Jones said...

For fuck's sake!

“You don’t know how much damage could be done and we need to send the message it is unacceptable to bring it in.”

Sounds like this twat doesn't know much.

I'm sure you could do more damage with a sharpened pencil than with a plastic toy gun that fires foam.

uk Fred said...

Over thirty years ago I had to submit a sociology essay entitled 'Is Bureaucracy Taking Over?' On the evidence presented here and on various other websites like Anna Raccoon, it most certainly is.

This is an example of what happens when you must obey the rule, irrespective of how stupid that rule is. Thank goodness for academics like the one in charge of our residences when I was a student who would not change the rule on visitors from 'Visitors are allowed at all reasonable times.' His reasoning was that how the visitor behaved and the purpose of the visit could make affect what was reasonable at the time. This involved using not-so common sense and that is something that is clearly missing in this instance, and also in the Woodbridge School post. Is it any wonder that friends are all thinking of emigration to Australia and New Zealand, because even Canada is getting infected with this nonsense now.

RAB said...

I feel really sorry for kids today. My generation were armed to the teeth with toy weapons that looked very realistic indeed, that was the point of them.

I had a toy Carbine that made a very satisfying Budda Budda budda sound when the trigger was pulled, and a toy Colt 45 that was ultra realistic. The chamber rotated and it had actual shells (caps inside to make the bang). We had catapults and spud guns, the lot, and no teacher would have dreamt of sending us home for bringing them into school.

But have a look at this pair of fuckwits. This is the way we are going folks!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089474/Boy-girl-The-parents-refused-say-FIVE-years-finally-reveal-sex-gender-neutral-child.html

Lynne said...

I wonder what the reaction would be to a kid entering the school with a candy stick dangling from the corner of his/her mouth?

Have you ever actually taught? said...

Macheath: Head teachers who don't teach. Surely the name needs to be changed, then?

Addled Nincompoop would be a good start.

Macheath said...

HYEAT: what of those who emblazon their doors with the the title 'Head Learner'?

Personally, I try to avoid the use of head teacher except where I know that the person concerned has puts in a reasonable amount of time at the chalkface and continues to do so wherever possible - in any case, I'm old-fashioned enough to think 'headmaster' or 'headmistress' commands more respect.

Captain Haddock said...

"What of those who emblazon their doors with the the title 'Head Learner'? " ..

Indicative that they indulge in a little Phrenology, on the side ? ..

After all, they're pretty damned useless as Teachers .. ;)

JuliaM said...

"More real? Is there a sliding scale now.."

Quite! One hopes MacHeath's assessment is correct, and she's not an English teacher turned headmistress...

"...the inexorable rise of the non-teaching head."

A concept spread from private industry - that you don't need to know the job, you just need to know the latest management theory.

A recipe for disaster.

"This is an example of what happens when you must obey the rule, irrespective of how stupid that rule is."

Spot on!

"We had catapults and spud guns, the lot, and no teacher would have dreamt of sending us home for bringing them into school."

Even I had a spud gun! The only dangerous thing about it was the sharp edges of the spud-gouging implement...

JuliaM said...

"I wonder what the reaction would be to a kid entering the school with a candy stick dangling from the corner of his/her mouth?"

You have to search far and wide to find sweet cigarettes or that coconut 'tobacco'... :(

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX She said: “As a school we have a duty of care to the children and whatever type of gun it was, it should not have been taken to school. XX

The sad thing about the terible state of the publics wepons craft these days, is that she probably does NOT know the difference between this toy and a real gun.