3127 secondary school in the UK (approx.) 3m students within the 3127 secondary school Horrific, but very rare incidence of a pupil killing a teacher. Not the time to start a rant about how all schools are rubbish and education has gone to the dogs and all teenagers are misfits who think they can get away with doing what they like and blame it on ADHD. All the same, horrific and some reward for dedicating 40yrs of her life to trying to helping children better themselves. RIP
Is it true that Catholic schools such as the one in this case are normally the preserve of the upper-middle class in England? And if so, was this lad from a - for want of a better word - "respectable" background as opposed to a sink estate?
That's a very good question. I personally don't think religion has anything to do with it tbh. It's just sadly the way a lot of schools and the youth are going these days!
Thanks bass-man, summed up my reaction to this thread perfectly. From what I heard on the news this boy was from a 'good' family, was doing well at school, but was a loner and a big heavy metal fan. Sounds like a psychotic incident to me rather than symptomatic of some general decline in moral standards and PC liberals taking over the world. Thank goodness he didn't have access to guns. As for catholic schools being the preserve of the middle class, quite the opposite when I was growing up. Our local Catholic secondary school, Salvatorean in Harrow, was as hard as nails and they always kicked the **** out of us at association football. The state schools which are the preserve of the middle class now are those which still have selective entry. The upper middle class would only ever send their kids to private schools.
Not religion mate. What I was getting at was "class" and if this lad was from a comfortable background rather than dragged up in an extremely disadvantaged area. I'd just heard that Catholic schools tend to be quite exclusive in England. It could be cobblers though! (EDIT: Stan's just answered my question. It was cobblers!!)
Pure speculation, but religion might have something to do with it. The poor lady who was killed taught religious studies as well as Spanish, and who knows if this lad had some kind of satanic fixation (just a guess based on his alleged musical tastes). Again I'm guessing but religious studies in a faith school may not be quite as flexible as in the secular versions i.e. they may be actually teaching the bible and less chance to opt out. The subject in my kids' schools is brilliantly taught (including in my son's old school by a vicar) - no 'faith' teaching/ bible study, a lot of philosophy and comparative religion, posing ethical questions (my daughter has just done half a term on utilitarianism). At parent's evening at my daughter's school it emerged that her teacher is an atheist and we fell into discussion about Hitchens. Both my kids love arguing and debate (wonder where they get that from?) and the girl is going to take it for GCSE. Son is hopefully going to be studying politics at Uni next autumn. Chips off the old block or what?
Nearly 1,000 pupils were caught with weapons in schools since 2011, as the death of a teacher sparks a fresh debate on security. Read on at http://news.sky.com/story/1251576/teacher-assaults-and-abuse-rise-in-schools
Nearly 1,000 out of (as 4string pointed out) 3 million is one thirtieth of one percent. Let's say only one thirtieth of weapons carrying kids are detected, thats still only 1% of all kids. Then do you assume they carry weapons every day of the 180 (odd) school days? Makes the number even smaller if not. Of course in the olden days kids never used to carry knives. Oh hold on, in my old fashioned state grammar school in the leafy suburbs in the seventies we had at least 2 Stanley knife slashing incidents. Rare but real. I am not trying to belittle or deny the sickening level of physical and verbal abuse that teachers are subject to, which is certainly much higher than in the past, I just think linking this to the murder in Leeds is mistaken. And also this rose tinted stuff about the past is misleading too. I am sure violence in general in the seventies was more prevalent than now - maybe not guns between gangs, but certainly football violence, muggings, riots (remember Notting Hill almost every year?) to say nothing of bombings were much more prevalent.
ok so as a percentage that is around 0.03% of the total number of students in secondary schools. Factor in that most of those were probably brought in by stupid numpties who were just trying to scare or impress and had no real intention of actually stabbing/shooting/clubbing/koshing/whipping/slingshotting anyone and the numbers reduce again. Any weapon on any person in any school is wrong, but let's keep it in perspective on actual numbers and not headlines. Religion has nothing to do with this. The 15year is either one of two things. Evil or has severe mental health issues. This could have happened in any school, faith or community, although every news report makes sure that when naming the school it includes "Catholic" college. Mental Health is a serious concern in the youth today and the numbers of teenagers being diagnosed with genuine severe anxiety and depression is increasing alarmingly and if this boy who is being questioned is not pure evil but has severe mental health issues - then either for some reason it was not detected or he has been let down by the authorities and this has had a catastrophic impact on the life of a dedicated teacher who has 40 years service and her family and the community of the school. It will be interesting to understand the background and if the reasons come out. Mental health issue to blame , inherent evil, just a bad egg, parents to blame, society to blame, health service to blame? who knows. Catholic schools, both the good ones and the bad ones are in every community and are not exclusive. What differentiates them is their admissions criteria gives preference to practicing Catholics who confirm that they support the Catholic ethos of the school. Once that is determined it comes down to distance from home to school in 95% of the cases. Catholic schools are most certainly not elitist, and reserved for the upper middle classes - far from it.
According to The Times, the boy in custody had depression after his parents' split up, had spoken of suicide and self harmed. Avoided eye contact etc, but high achiever at school. Obviously just what they picked up through talking to local people and may not be accurate, but reinforces the likelihood of one -off psychotic incident.
He's a minor. Here in Europe thankfully we have laws against the cruel and unusual punishment of offenders. Obviously in the US things are a little different but that's not always a good thing: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/30/oklahoma-execution-botched-clayton-lockett
What has the US and UK got to do with it? In the US the age of a minor is the same as England, 18, although in Scotland its 16, so pick on the Scots. The point is he is responsible for a horrific crime and if its not possible to sentence him to a very long sentence in jail then he should be sectioned for as long as possible. By the way he wouldnt have used a knife in the states he would have probably used a M16 and taken out some students as well.
Nice. Minor difference is that US was executing minors right up to 2003. In the UK thet has not happened since the 1800's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_juvenile_offenders_executed_in_the_United_States_since_1976 Pure barbarism.
