Need Some Help And Advice Rather Urgently

[AnonyMouse_79]

Hi all, not very golden but

 

Can you help?

I have a friend who has found herself in the unenviable position of being threatened with a knife by a parent. The father turned up demanding to see his son and as access is denied the child was removed leaving the teacher with the irate father.

 

Needless to say my friend is more than a little distressed by the ordeal and is concerned about returning to work, immediately because the police have as yet failed to apprehend the man and in the long term recognises that perhaps their policy needs reviewing.

 

What do you do?

Has anyone else been in this sort of terrible situation?

[Guest]

We have had some trouble with parents in the past, though nothing this serious - how awful for your friend.

 

How secure is the site? Is it possible to assess how many entry points there are to the building, and perhaps limit this until things stabilise again? Can your friend make sure that she has someone with her at going home times each day?

 

These suggestions seem rather obvious, but I'm not feeling to clever today!

 

Hope there is a resolution to the issue soon!

 

Dianne xxx

[AnonyMouse_79]

HI Diane

even the obvious I think is a help-

in normal cicumstances the door is manned at the end of the session but on this occasion a Parents afternoon was taking place and the parents were coming and going.

The man came in as another parent was leaving and when he introduced himself the other member of staff in the room removed the child. he then became difficult.

We've all experienced difficult parents for one reason or another but I don't suppose many of us have ever had this sort of confrontation. In normal circumstance there would have been 3 staff in the room, so I suppose that could be a learning point for all of us.

I'm often alone with parents in my classroom on parents days and although I would alert someone if I was expecting a parent to be difficult and have aided a colleague with a difficult parent if the parent has a knife or is really determined to cause troube, you might not be in a position to get help.

Meanwhile my friends head has agreed for some flexibility of her movements at the beginning and end of the day in the short term

 

Any other thoughts?