I READ with some distaste the story printed in last week's Free Press about the "angry" mother who was suing her daughter's school due to an injury that she sustained during an unsupervised moment.
As a primary school teacher at another school, I fully understand any parent's concerns for their child's safety, but would like to remind this parent that accidents DO happen, and to ask her to consider the consequences of her own actions on other s
chools in the borough.
During the few years that I have been teaching I have witnessed a growing uncertainty amongst teachers to allow children to be responsible for their own actions, for fear of uncertain events leading to legal action. One consequence of this has been the general decline in the number of school trips and visits outside of school.
Is it right to deny our future generations these learning experiences just in case the worst happens?
Unfortunately, as British parents jump onto the bandwagon of the so-called 'compensation culture', this is exactly what will happen.
Whilst I sympathise with the hurt and trauma that this child has obviously gone through, her accident appears to have taken place at a time when she was walking through a 'safe' part of school that was part of her everyday experience. It is impossible for any member of a school's staff to watch a child for 100% of the time.
If Mrs Lumsden is successful in her claim, will staff around the country be forced to deny the children this responsibility, taking away their freedom to walk alone to a next-door classroom, or even visit the toilet unsupervised.
It is important that our children are educated in a safe and comfortable environment, but where do we draw the line before we raise a generation of 'cotton-wool kids' who have no sense of the dangers of the world around them? I leave that to the likes of Mrs Lumsden to decide.
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