Teachers given new powers to discipline pupils

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education...ne-pupils.html

Can only be a good thing; there are some nasty brats out there who want their rights and think that trumps everyone else's right to an education. And not all of those brats are the kids, either; some are the parents.

[radiocerk]

It's about time that teachers were given the authority to be more than simply glorified babysitters. You can't expect a teacher to maintain discipline, if you make them afraid to issue discipline. Hopefully, this idea spreads.

[Eisa]

Er...so they can just conduct random searches of students?

Y'know, I agree that teachers need to be able to discipline the rowdy ones more, but I can definitely see this leading to a lot of abuse...by the -teachers-...

[BlaqueKatt]

Er...so they can just conduct random searches of students?

Y'know, I agree that teachers need to be able to discipline the rowdy ones more, but I can definitely see this leading to a lot of abuse...by the -teachers-...

from the article:

Previously, teachers could only frisk pupils’ clothes and search bags without consent for weapons, drugs, alcohol and stolen goods. For the first time, teachers will be able to search pupils for any item they believe troublemakers can use to cause disruption during lessons(mobile phones, iPods, MP3 players and other electronic gadgets)

so they were allowed to conduct random searches before, just only for a few items, only change is what they can search for, so "abuse by the teachers" isn't an issue.

[Greenday]

Wow, if any teacher had tried to frisk me without my permission or a warrant, they would have ended up with a black eye. And you can bet I'd be proud of it. I didn't know teachers were already authorized to perform searches that'd be illegal for cops to perform. What's mine is mine and no teacher has the right to search it without my permission. That's something I'd be proud of anyone who takes a teacher to court for it.

I like how the article says one of the situations that weighed in on this was how some teacher was filmed beating on a student. Christ, that's a great reason to NOT allow this dumbass rule. If a teacher starts beating on a student, it's a good thing the kids can take videos so the douchebag can be fired and thrown in jail.

[DrFaroohk]

A search seems kind of pointless in some ways. Like they'll search some kid and take the mp3 player out of his pocket. It's in his pocket! He's not listening to it and its not bothering anyone. It wasn't even an issue until you dug into his pockets - that seems a lot less relevant than the cellphone on someone's desk.

[Gravekeeper]

Allow teachers to impose “same day” detentions, scrapping rules that require schools to give parents a 24-hour warning;

Hah, wow. You can't get a same day detention in the UK? >.>

Still, at least one of the rules is a great idea:

Protect teachers from false and malicious allegations made by pupils and parents, giving them anonymity until a case reaches court;

[Rageaholic]

I don't think this is a good idea either. There has to be a way to protect teachers from the asshole students while still respecting student rights. The searches are just more unnecessary zero tolerance bullshit. I don't see how this will improve anything.

Also

Introduce rules giving head teachers the ability to punish pupils for bad behaviour outside school.

Why? Unless what they do outside of school affects the teacher, it's not their concern!

[BlaqueKatt]

I didn't know teachers were already authorized to perform searches that'd be illegal for cops to perform.

this article is from the UK not the US-there are many differences in the laws in the two countries. I would think the domain ending in .co.uk would make that obvious.

I like how the article says one of the situations that weighed in on this was how some teacher was filmed beating on a student. Christ, that's a great reason to NOT allow this dumbass rule. If a teacher starts beating on a student, it's a good thing the kids can take videos so the douchebag can be fired and thrown in jail.

the teacher in that case was found not guilty, he had been assaulted by students previously, was suffering from mental illness(which the students knew), and was being goaded/taunted by the students because they thought it would be "funny" to cause a mental breakdown in class and put it on youtube.

In July last year, a few children in the physics lesson in Year 9, aged 13 to 14, planned to secretly film themselves “winding up” Harvey, who had just returned from five months off with stress. They decided to find out what it would take to make him snap and the recording would then be passed to other children.

I think the "douchebags" as you so eloquently put it, are the students that wanted to instigate a mental breakdown in a fellow human being. Facts are better than jumping to conclusions-took 5 seconds on google.

[Greenday]

So if his job was putting him on the edge of a mental breakdown, why did he continue to put himself in that position?

[Bright Star]

So if his job was putting him on the edge of a mental breakdown, why did he continue to put himself in that position?

I wonder about that too.

[Canarr]

Possibly for the same silly reason most other people do - earn a living?

[BlaqueKatt]

So if his job was putting him on the edge of a mental breakdown, why did he continue to put himself in that position?

well he had taken five months off, his wife is unemployed, and being in his 50's it's a little difficult to just up and change careers when your almost at the end of it. I worked at a job for three years, after the first year I came home crying every. single. night. Why did I stay? I couldn't afford to quit until I found another job, I was applying to at least 5 places a week, it took two years until I even got an interview.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Funny how some people automatically jump to the childrens' defence, even tho they are in the wrong, not the teachers. I suspect I could post up a story about an old lady getting battered by a teenage mugger, and the response would be, "Well, she shouldn't have been carrying a handbag with her pension in it, it was too big a temptation for that poor, deprived teenager."

In any case, when I was at school, you could get a detention with zero notice; be punished for misbehaving in class; be sent out of the room for snarking back at a teacher; oh yes, and have your bags searched without notice. This was only ever done in extreme circumstances, such as reports of weapons or drugs.

The only time I remember it happening all the time I was at school was when a student was reported as having pulled a knife on the school bus. No-one would own up to being the culprit, so everyone who was on the bus at the time had their bags searched. The knife was found, and the guilty girl ended up being suspended.

Now tho, someone would bleat on about how her rights were being ignored... never mind the right of the school bus driver to be able to drive a school bus without worrying about kids getting hurt by a girl pulling a knife. And that suspension could even be revoked. These ideas talked about in the article are way overdue; it's not about removing rights, but about going back to the way things were before children were given rights they weren't entitled to in the first place.

If you misbehave at school, you get punished. Don't want to get punished? Then behave. And if you do get punished, then suck it up and improve yourself. It's hardly rocket science.

[Rageaholic]

Actually, I think that the kids in those stories are little shits and deserve what ever punishment they get. I'm not one to blame the victim, but when you intentionally goad someone, the that person becomes the victim. Kids can be monsters and I can understand why that would make being a teacher difficult.

However.

These ideas talked about in the article are way overdue; it's not about removing rights, but about going back to the way things were before children were given rights they weren't entitled to in the first place.

This I think is bullshit.

Kids should be entitled to basic rights. Though it depends on what you're talking about.

If you mean the right to misbehave and disrupt class, than no. They don't have that right.

But the right to privacy? Hell yes. If teachers try this draconian shit than I wouldn't blame any students for not taking kindly to this.