The Threat of Violence in The Classroom

There is a lot more to teaching than people realise. Facing potential violence is something we know about. I have mentioned before being nervous of who might turn up and threaten me with a gun. Thing is we have a job to do, so we try to do it. One of my boys had a knife confiscated off him, with which he had intended to defend himself in the playground.

I had a child threaten to do me physical harm with a pair of compasses too. I did find him scary. I knew he hated me because I had done my best to ignore him. I know it wasn’t just me, his last teacher had quit. I would reward the class with extra playtime, if they had managed to not join in. I really liked the class despite its challenges.

It must have been so challenging for the other students, having everything constantly interrupted by him. He always looked like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. I now know a lot more about people like that.

Normally I am ok with challenging youngsters. In fact I often like and admire them but in this instance, this was not the case. In fact I am going to brag here. One headmaster had actually told me he had never known me to badmouth a student. Well I have now I guess. I think I did go through a few bottles of whisky in the evenings that year