i)
Learning Disruptor (1993)
Ray staggered through the classroom door
stumbling into a desk. He sat very quickly and looked keenly at the board. As
other pupils entered the room, they took off their coats and got their exercise
books and pens out ready for the start of the lesson.
Mrs Gaysford noted that Ray hadn’t yet done
this and had his hands under the desk. Better than flicking things around the
room she assessed, and began the lesson.
After a few minutes, it became even more
obvious that Ray wasn’t engaging with the lesson and still had his coat on. He
was also wriggling and looked to be in some discomfort.
When he stood up in response to the teacher’s
request, it became apparent that the discomfort may have been related to his
fingers having turned a purple colour. The cause of this looked to be at least
two full rolls of sellotape that had been wrapped repeatedly around each of his
hands, binding them together, tightly.
The next 12 minutes of the lesson involved
Mrs Gaysford managing ‘helpful’ members
of the class variously offering to cut the sellotape off; hit Ray to show how
stupid he was; run to tell the headteacher; using (against school rules)
penknives to remove the tape and generally give opinions and predictions about
the impact of loss of circulation on fingers.
ii)
Teacher Bondage (1998)
As a teacher walked up the hill to the
Music Department in a rural school, she heard an adult’s voice requesting
‘help’ in a quiet but desperate voice. As she turned following the noise she
saw the music teacher (permanent member of staff and NOT a supply colleague)
taped to a large tree. No pupils anywhere in sight.
Asking the teacher how this happened led to
no coherent answer and it was only a few months later that the pupils involved
explained to a new drama teacher how it occurred. They had convinced the music
teacher to stand with her back to the trunk with her eyes closed, while the
class organised a ‘surprise’ for her. One pupil then ran around quickly reeling
the tape around the tree and teacher, pinning her arms down.
Then the class ran off.
Moral in the story – NEVER stand against a
tree with your eyes closed.
iii)
Student Travois (2003)
Determined to show he could handle situations
and stay calm using his experience of positive relationships with pupils, Maq
attended his second ‘on call’ SLT duty. The phone call sent him to the science
department where, it was reported, some year 10 boys were running around disrupting
lessons in the area.
Maq strode meaningfully forward and as he
entered the open area in front of the classrooms, four pupils, almost unable to
walk upright properly through laughing, were dragging another pupil, Mark, around
on a chair. Mark was taped to the chair with long strips of sellotape around
his forehead, shoulders, chest and arms, waist, and legs, completely binding
him to the chair.
Maq knew exactly what to do. He phoned for
back up immediately.
