[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Gayle

Because - we don't agree that your view is correct.

The people who disagree with you are the ones that, like myself, believe that the teacher had every right to go in and fish the 'young people' out of the shop.

They were late and should have been in school. Therefore on school time! So we believe that once on school time, the teachers are taking on the parental responsibility and were in the right.

As for the teacher being out of school, that's the point that we don't know. We don't know if the headmaster requested the teacher went to catch all the truants, we don't know if the teacher in question was supposed to be in class and we don't know if the teacher was getting herself a bacon butty and unhappy to be caught out. What we also don't know is if the pupils in question had a history of being late or absent!

And if we don't know, neither do you - therefore, your continual insistence that the teacher was in the wrong has no basis either.

And I believe that a home owner has every right to tackle a burglar without fear of prosecution. Yet people have been prosecuted for defending their home. I myself received a police caution for bloodying a burglar’s nose before he managed to make his escape, although he was quickly caught and laid a complaint against me. My belief doesn’t make it lawful if the law says otherwise.

The whole case on supporting the teacher has been based on a belief or a desire.

It isn’t what you believe but what is. A teacher does not have any authority over the pupils outside of the school premises regardless of whether it is during school hours or not.

I agree we do not know why the teacher was out of school and in the butty shop but I would suggest that in view of the published report and the subsequent response to it the headmaster would have told the press she was at the butty shop lawfully, if indeed she was. As it is all he would say is something about sending letters to the homes of the late arrivals, this would suggest that she was at fault. And the school closed ranks to prevent it becoming known that teachers were in the habit of leaving the school premises during school hours.

If you were the head, in view of your beliefs on this issue, wouldn’t you have claimed that the teacher was right to do what she did? Or would the fact that she shouldn’t have been in the shop at that time prevent you from making that claim and therefore saying nothing?