Strike after pupil attacks teacher
Monday, 13 October 2008
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Pupils at a Northern Ireland school were sent home today after it was forced to close because of strike action by teachers.
The action, involving 25 members of Northern Ireland’s largest teaching union the NASUWT, began this morning after a pupil assaulted a teacher at Movilla High School in Newtownards last month.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) also confirmed today that it is currently balloting its 10 members at the Co Down school on ‘refusal to teach’ action. The ATL members were instructed by their union not to cover for absent colleagues at the school today.
The NASUWT teachers began their strike outside Movilla High this morning – however, the South Eastern Education and Library Board (SEELB) urged pupils to show up for classes as normal. At 9.30am the board confirmed the school was sending pupils home.
A NASUWT statement said that its members voted to refuse to teach the pupil involved in the assault earlier this term but made it clear to management that they intended to teach all other pupils at the school.
It also stated that there was a period of industrial action in which teachers were not allowed to teach their classes where the pupil was present and that they suffered “punitive and disproportionate reduction of salaries”.
“The NASUWT has been forced to escalate to all out continuous strike action,” the statement said.
Seamus Searson, Northern Ireland organiser, said: “The NASUWT takes the issue of assaults on its members, or indeed on any other workers, very seriously.
“All along we have made it clear that our members want to continue teaching their classes but this particular pupil needs a new start with speci alised support.
“Unfortunately this has not happened and we have had a situation where our members have been teaching at the school but without being paid.
“Clearly we cannot tolerate a situation where our members are not paid for the work they are doing, and where, in effect, all the pupils are being punished for the behaviour of one.
“The failure of the South Eastern Education and Library Board to provide proper support for this pupil is having a devastating impact on teachers and students alike.”
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Peter Scott, NASUWT executive member, would not reveal any more detail on the assault except to say: “It was serious enough for our members to believe that a refusal to teach action was necessary.
“For the two weeks the teachers were engaged in refusal to teach action they were not being paid a penny. Our members were furious about this because effectively they have been working for nothing. In similar situations in other schools, arrangements are made to withdraw a pupil and we can often sort things out.”
Mark Langhammer, from the ATL, said: “We have a ballot out to our members today on refusal to teach. We had anticipated that this would be sorted out by now so we held back the ballot as long as we could.”
A SEELB spokesman said: “Teachers who are members of the NASUWT in Movilla High School commenced strike action at the school today.
“The strike action is in relation to the NASUWT members refusing to teach or supervise a particular pupil at the school.
“The board and board of governors have requested the trade union to engage in talks facilitated by the Labour Relations Agency to resolve the issue.”
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I hope people realise that not all pupils at Movilla are out of control.
Posted by Peter | 14.10.08, 20:44 GMT
Thousands of teachers are referred to List 99, they are just people, they are not perfect, one has to be fair, one can't just keep giving in to them. There has to be reasonableness. The teaching unions do not evict children from our schools. If they don't like that fact, they need to find another profession.
Posted by Gregory Carlin | 14.10.08, 20:21 GMT
Teachers are there to teach you not put up with abusive behaviour. How on earth are they being ridiculous by refusing to do something that isnt part of their job description. Too many young people just dont want to be disciplined so their first response is to verbally abuse the teacher!
Posted by Kiz | 14.10.08, 16:35 GMT
In my experience many teachers, face a daily routine of loud confrontational pupil, ‘situations’. Verbal battles, which include aggressive open defiance of school rules, abusive or bad language, and threats, are commonplace. The use of violence against the teacher as in Movilla is also not unknown! None of this would be tolerated in any other workplace.
Remarkably the Department of Education’s answer to rising school indiscipline has been to cut Special School provision and repeat the mantra that schools need to be all inclusive. In the end schools and individual teachers are very much left on their own to deal with the problems.
The Movilla action is a loud wake up call to the Department of Education to urgently come up with effective measures that will protect the rights of teachers who want to teach and pupils who want to learn in our schools. I fully support the teachers on strike.
Posted by T J McClean | 13.10.08, 20:45 GMT
When I was going to school I dared not even look crooked at a teacher. If I got in trouble at school, that was nothing to the trouble I was in when I got home.
Posted by Ed | 13.10.08, 18:50 GMT
So it seems that it's okay for pupils to hit their teachers, but for teachers to give punishments to the pupils is a NO NO. How absurd. If this pupil had been given PROPER punishment in the early years of schooling, it would have been standard practice to receive punishment now and therefore this strike action would have been avoided because the pupil would have known they would NOT have gotten away with it. I sincerely hope the teacher makes a claim against the pupil and they get a criminal record because of their action.
Posted by CannuckCol | 13.10.08, 18:20 GMT
i support the teachers ,why should one pupil disrupt the whole school,i blame the seelb for for not resolving the issue,my grandaughter went to school this morning only to be sent home
Posted by g.d | 13.10.08, 16:13 GMT
It is sad that the teachers in this school have been left with no alternative other than striking. Teaching has always been more than a job to all of us in the profession and it would have been difficult for all of these teachers to make this decision.
The pupil's needs are also not being met by the Board of Governor's and SEELB decisions around this case.
Teachers are employed to TEACH - they want to teach - not babysit or do crowd control for disruptive pupils with substantial behaviour issues.
Posted by A Campbell | 13.10.08, 15:58 GMT
Why were these pupils told to come into school and then promptly told to go home? Surely the management of this school are putting the health and safety of their pupils at risk as well as using parents as a pawn in their game with their staff?
Posted by Bill | 13.10.08, 13:56 GMT
I go to this school and I truely think the teachers are being rediculous. I know they have been refusing to teach the pupil for about 2 weeks but why is it only now they decide to have the strike. Yes they dont want to teach the pupil but techniqually then it is the teachers fault for not getting paid. They need to wise up..the pupils in Movilla are more like the adults than the teachers are! I dont know how long we are going to be off school for in this strike but it is the teachers fault for the pupils losing out on their education. I dont blame the pupil.
Posted by Sarah, Newtownards | 13.10.08, 13:46 GMT
100% behind teachers.
Posted by ddobbin | 13.10.08, 13:18 GMT