A TEACHER in the UK cleared of attempted murder after hitting a pupil with a dumb-bell was yesterday given a two-year community service order.
Peter Harvey snapped and attacked the 14-year-old boy after being goaded by other students, one of whom covertly filmed the incident. The 50-year-old hit him on the head with a 3kg dumb-bell while shouting “Die, die, die” at All Saints’ Roman Catholic high school in Mansfield, northern England.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a fractured skull and bleeding to the brain in the attack, which happened last July.
Mr Harvey was found not guilty of attempted murder in April after the jurors at Nottingham crown court had deliberated for less than two hours. The boy’s family stormed out of the court as the verdicts were delivered.
The case raised serious issues about the misuse of mobile technology in classrooms and the effect it has on teachers, with unions calling on schools to bring in tougher measures to prevent such incidents.
Nottingham crown court heard that a 14-year-old girl who had smuggled the camera into class had planned to goad Mr Harvey and show the footage around the school in order to humiliate him.
During a science lesson, students had been experimenting to see which materials would best protect an ice cube from heat. They began insulting Harvey, calling him a “bald-headed bastard” and “psycho”. The science teacher, who was well liked by staff and students, snapped when he attempted to wrestle a Bunsen burner stand from the 14-year-old boy, who told him to “f**k off”.
The court heard that the boy was a leading light in causing trouble, and had earlier been swordfighting with a ruler and playing volleyball with scrunched-up paper.
He had disrupted lessons at the school on at least nine occasions in one year. When questioned in court, he said he could not recall anything about his poor disciplinary record prior to the incident.
The jury accepted Harvey’s claim that he was in such a state as the class’s behaviour deteriorated that he could not have intended to harm the boy, who is now 15. He admitted grievous bodily harm without intent and told police that he thought he had killed the pupil.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, of which Harvey is a member, said schools should introduce tougher measures to ensure hand-held and mobile phone cameras were not used in classrooms.
“We have said schools should treat mobile phones as if they are offensive weapons. They are proving as dangerous as weapons because of what can be done with them in terms of what can be put on the internet and making allegations against teachers on the internet.” – (Guardian service)