Teacher sacked for putting a student in a head lock despite being punched by the youth

[nero_bolt]

Teacher sacked for putting a student in a head lock despite being punched by the youth says staff are powerless 

 TEACHER who was sacked for misconduct including putting a student in a headlock after the youth punched him said the NSW education system left teachers "powerless to discipline kids".

Science and agriculture teacher Stephen Krix was fired from Riverstone High School when he fought back against a year-10 student who refused to work and punched him in the face during a class.

Mr Krix - a "squarely built" 51-year-old who had worked in various public and private teaching roles since 1989 - told The Sunday Telegraph he acted in self-defence when he put the "slight" student in a headlock during a science class in May 2011.

The incident came after the student refused to take off his headphones, told Mr Krix to f*** off several times and punched the teacher when he stood close to him with a worksheet and refused to move

.

The incident was outlined in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission last Wednesday where Mr Krix lost an appeal against the sacking he claimed was "harsh, unreasonable and unjust".

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Krix, who now works in the security industry, said the public system was failing kids because teachers feared being sacked if they disciplined students.

He said students were leaving public schools without the self-restraint required to cope with post-school life.

It's a joke - that's why people are running to private schools," Mr Krix said.

"Eighty per cent of kids are screwed over by the state system because of a lack of discipline given to a minority of bad kids who disrupt classes," he said.

"You have to have zero tolerance … if a kid is behaving badly in the classroom he needs to be extracted and all the kids that are behaving themselves need to be able to get educated."

In relation to the student, Mr Krix said: "It's not like he's some sort of pathological killer … he's just a kid who needed discipline and wasn't getting it. If he's given the guidelines then he knows where the boundary is".

A NSW Department of Education and Communities representative told the commission Mr Krix should have stood down from any physical confrontation.

The representative said the Teaching Service Act meant that teachers had to respond to situations with the safety of students being the top priority.

more here http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/teacher-sacked-for-putting-a-student-in-a-head-lock-despit...

A very true comment from a poster on that page....

The day will come when no one will want to become a high school teacher...it has been getting worse for years now.

Education will be  via the internet for a teacher's safety .T

he students hold the power .  

Has anyone got the guts to swing this around...I doubt it.

Then again, anyone who wants to become a secondary teacher in the public system ,I guess, deserves all that is coming their way if they haven't heeded the warning signals by now to AVOID this once great profession! 

[polksaladallie]

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@azureline** wrote:

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@polksaladallie wrote:

Respect and disrespect is earned. 

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Respect is a given.........disrespect is earned, imo. Both students and teacher earned it.

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I don't agree that respect is a given.  I can think of authoritarian figures in Queensland who do not have my respect because of their past practices, and it will be a long time before I acquire that respect, unless they change their methods.

Respect is earned, by teachers, parents, and others, as is disrespect.

[azureline**]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

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@azureline** wrote:

---

@polksaladallie wrote:

Respect and disrespect is earned. 

---

Respect is a given.........disrespect is earned, imo. Both students and teacher earned it.

---

I don't agree that respect is a given.  I can think of authoritarian figures in Queensland who do not have my respect because of their past practices, and it will be a long time before I acquire that respect, unless they change their methods.

Respect is earned, by teachers, parents, and others, as is disrespect.

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so, that is what I am talking about.

[punch*drunk]

Just an observation, but since kids stopped getting the cane at school and in many cases stopped getting the occasional smack on their bum from their parents, they have become a much more aggressive disrespectful lot. So the argument about kids getting smacked leading to them becoming more aggressive doesnt really make sense, it seems to be working the opposite way. Not that i'm neccessarily for corporal punishment in schools, but it did seem to keep the naughty kids in check when I was at school.

Reading that court transcript it seems like both sides have exaggerarted and/or omitted facts in order to support their story. The teacher probably shouldnt have left the kids alone with the flammable liquid, but lets face it, they were certainly old enough to know better than to behave the way they were. If he'd not gone after the kid taking the fuel from the car and he'd burnt the school down, then they would be saying he should have left the other kids and gone after them. Once he was in that position and he only had 2 choices and if it were me I'd have gone after the kid stealing the fuel from the car.

I wonder if the kid he restrained would have been so foul mouthed, disrespectful and quick to use his fists if there had been some consequences for his poor behaviour, preferably earlier in his schooling or from his parents.

Personally I think the teacher writing things about the kid on the board is worse than the headlock and probably what pushed the kid into not backing down and refusing to do what he was told.

Regardless of what happened to the teacher in this instance, the kid should definitely have been charged with assault and expelled. If he's prepared to punch a teacher, he's also a danger to other students.

[chuk_77]

I did check out his FB page but not the ACA report yet, but will now just because of what the boy wrote on one of his photos 

"Lie on national television  
Good $%^ing job"

[polksaladallie]

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@azureline** wrote:

---

@polksaladallie wrote:

---

@azureline** wrote:

---

@polksaladallie wrote:

Respect and disrespect is earned. 

---

Respect is a given.........disrespect is earned, imo. Both students and teacher earned it.

---

I don't agree that respect is a given.  I can think of authoritarian figures in Queensland who do not have my respect because of their past practices, and it will be a long time before I acquire that respect, unless they change their methods.

Respect is earned, by teachers, parents, and others, as is disrespect.

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so, that is what I am talking about.

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I did not make my position clear.  If a person aged 22 in a uniform appeared in front of me, he/she would not have my "given" respect, even though it was previous generations who took it away, not the 22 y/old  

[azureline**]

Everyone has my respect until they give me a reason not to.

[polksaladallie]

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@azureline** wrote:

Everyone has my respect until they give me a reason not to.

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I know that is how you feel, I feel differently about some.

[aftanas]

Thanks daydream**believer for the link to the ACA story.  This is another example of what journalists call bad journalism.

There are very few good news shows on TV.  ACA is not one of them.  ACA's style is to pick a theme, one that inflames debate, and stick to it.  The theme of the current story is bad students out of control: teacher fired for defending himself.  But it is a lie and they know it.

Mr Krix was not fired for fighting with a student: he was fired for misconduct. He had received a written direction prior to the incidents and he didn't comply.  And, through his negligence, he allowed one of his students to be badly burned.  I think this incident is more serious than the others and probably drove the decision to dismiss him. 

In respect of the incident which Krix is focused upon, Commissioner Newell set out the dilemma when he stated that Mr Krix's response, to put the boy in a headlock, was understandable in other circumstances but not in the circumstance that the adult was the boy's teacher.  Fights are not unilateral actions: it takes two people to have a fight. Mr Krix could have have chosen to retreat which would have been consistent with Departmental policy and with the written direction given to him.  However, he chose to engage with the student and as a result breached school policy and the written direction.

Sacking is a pretty severe sanction and probably would not have happened if there were only one incident.  However, the fact of the written direction not to touch students (the issuing of which is likely part of a disciplinary process) indicates there were other incidents where Mr Krix had physically restrained students.  If it is school policy not to grab students and an employee teacher is unwiling or unable to comply with the policy then the school must either change the policy or sack the teacher.

Mr Krix was not sacked for fighting with a student: he was sacked for misconduct in failing to comply with a lawful written direction.

[ptb333]

You are wrong and cynical to call ACA liars in this. What about the Principal being there just before the burning incident occurred? What about the teacer getting smashed in the face and reacting as he saw fit? Wat about some empathy for the situation of boys egging him on by utter disrespectful attitude walking into class? You judge Mr Krix too harshly.

[freakiness]

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@ptb333 wrote:

You are wrong and cynical to call ACA liars in this. What about the Principal being there just before the burning incident occurred? What about the teacer getting smashed in the face and reacting as he saw fit? Wat about some empathy for the situation of boys egging him on by utter disrespectful attitude walking into class? You judge Mr Krix too harshly.

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It sounds like Mr Krix could have done with some appropriate support at an earlier stage.  

Was he offered support?

Was he offered the opportunity to teach in a less challenging environment for a time?

Should he have been given a role without student contact every day for a time?