UK primary school teacher sacked for tapping the hand of a child!

NEWS AND COMMENT/OPINION: This is a story from the UK which concerns me deeply. It's not about cats I'm afraid but about the human condition and the way society and culture have shifted dramatically in the UK and I suspect other countries but perhaps less so than in Great Britain. It affects society generally and is relevant indirectly to cat caregiving.

In an act of what I would call - or looks like - extreme woke behaviour, a teacher in charge of child safety at a primary school in Hackney, East London accused the head teacher of assaulting her three-year-old son because she tapped him on his hand to get his attention.

I think you would agree that that is extraordinary. And to some people - particularly old people like myself - it seems absurd. When I was a youngster, we were routinely caned which by today standards would be probably be grievous bodily harm, a serious crime with up to 10 years imprisonment on conviction!

But to tap a boy on the hand to get their attention and to characterise that as an assault which ultimately led to the sacking of the head teacher is really going far too far.

The head teacher's name is Shelly-Ann Malabver-Goulbourne and the teacher who accused her of an assault (and I'm talking here of a criminal assault) is Samantha Bhagwandas.

Bhagwandas saw the incident and accused the head teacher of hurting her son. She filed a complaint which led to a police enquiry and the head teacher was suspended.

The police found that the head teacher's actions were "reasonable chastisement" but despite that reasonable assessment, Malabver-Goulbourne was sacked.

Extraordinary again! That was clearly wrong which has been confirmed by an employment tribunal which assessed the sacking on an application by Malabver-Goulbourne who sought compensation.

The court upheld the head teacher's claim and the judge noted that the school's code of conduct did not prohibit all physical contact between pupils and teachers and that there was sufficient evidence to support the view that the head was simply trying to prevent injury to a child and addressing his behaviour.

What happened was the child picked up a hand sanitiser bottle and had injected some hand sanitiser onto the floor. Previously, it is reported (The Times) he had got hand sanitiser in his eyes. His mother was concerned and as she spoke to him he turned away so she tapped him on the hand to gain his attention. Malabver-Goulbourne behaviour was entirely appropriate within the context of the history of this matter.

The court couldn't find any judgement than what they made and the teacher who accused her and reported her was really out on a limb and acting in a highly unreasonable and overly sensitive and overly-woke way in my considered view.

The story is indicative of the general mood in the UK which is why think it's important to write about it. It's a story too which must put the fear of God into many primary school teachers as to what they can do in the classroom. How can they be free to teach in a comfortable and confident way if they can't even tap the hand of a child before being accused of a criminal assault!?

I would hope that the government read this case and provide some clear, firm guidance to primary schools as to what is and what isn't allowable by way of contact between teachers and children. 

They must be allowed to touch children and sometimes handle them with a little bit of firmness but with respect in order to maintain discipline and a productive learning environment for all. 

This should not be characterised as a crime which is beyond belief.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Kids pretending to be cats are taking over the classroom in wokery nonsense but there are serious undertones

 The argument from the right-wing is that pupils pretending to be cats are taking over the classroom and undermining the teacher who's probably too sensitive to the woke movement. They've allowed kids to become furries and in doing so undermined their authority. It's worse. One teacher admonished another for refusing to accept the concept of gender spectrum (non-binary). This is a merging of two wokery movements. 

Note: there is a wide spectrum of sexuality to which we must be enlightened and sensitive but I believe - without being disrespectful - that there are two sexes. Sex is biological. All the rest is in the head.

This is impossible and it must be stopped with firm leadership and guidance from parents initially and supported by teachers. Image: DALLE-E.

One girl self-identifies as a male cat and insisted on being addressed as 'kit'. The girl had merged the furries movement with the trans gender movement. Highly complicated and confusing. The culture becomes very fraught.

It disrupts the classroom and the education process. The UK education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has said that it is silly for pupils to self-identify as an animal. She takes the common-sense viewpoint. I feel sure that most Brits would agree with her. But is it just silliness? It may be a symptom of much more troubling mental processes in pupils and girls in particular. Too many are suicidal.

In Britain the classroom is becoming an impossible place for teachers which is why huge numbers are thinking of quitting.  It is a disturbingly high percentage. According to the BBC four out of ten teachers are planning to leave the profession! It is a catastrophe. The British education system is in a silent crisis and it is deteriorating. You can add inflation into the mix. Teachers have been striking for a huge pay increase. This is partly due to the difficulties of the job. Who'd be a teacher in Britain?

It will need a much firmer approach from heads and teachers. I'll be sexist and state that there needs to be more men in teaching. There are far less nowadays than in the past. In 2021/22, 75.5% of school teachers were women. Women have moved into teaching believing that it will suit them but no clearly not for a huge percentage.

They can be too gentle. Perhaps they sometimes lack sufficient confidence to stamp their authority over the classroom. That said the teachers are asking for guidance from the Dept. of Education on how to deal with this problem. Keegan will provide it, she says.

To be fair, it is very difficult for a teacher to deal with a child who wants to identify as a cat because of the modern snowflake culture. If teachers are too firm with pupils they can get into trouble when the child complains to their parents who then complain to the head teacher. It is toxic.

Teachers are having to be surrogate parents as parents abdicate their duties. Too many are capitulating to their children's fads to be trans or cats!! There is a merging of these movements as mentioned. Is this all about confused kids bossing around parents and teachers because they are too frightened to be firm and provide old-fashioned guidance?

Kids are also in crisis with an astonishingly high percentage of girls self-harming or having suicidal thoughts (30%!!). This can't go on. To me it is clear that there is a link between the high level of suicidal thoughts and wanting to opt-out by self-identifying as a cat.