Teacher slapped by girl’s mother in front of class ponders future

Maths teacher Rexford Attah-Boakye was teaching a group of Year Nine students at Sydney Smith secondary school in Hull when Wendy Carney, the mother of a girl who was not in the class, appeared at his side and hit him so hard with the palm of her hand he suffered blurred vision and still felt sore two hours later.

She then told him: “Don’t you drag my ******* daughter out of your lesson again.”

Carney, 48, who admitted common assault by beating and causing a nuisance on a school premises when she appeared in court yesterday, wrongly believed the teacher had physically thrown her daughter, Melissa, out of an earlier class.

Heather Levett, prosecuting, told Beverley Magistrates’ Court that Mr Attah-Boakye, who has worked at the school for six years, was now unsure of his future. “He loves his job but finds himself questioning whether or not he wants to be a teacher any more,” she said.

In the earlier lesson, which began at 10.30am on March 18, Melissa went into a class of Year Eight students five minutes before the end and asked to see a friend, but Mr Attah-Boakye told her to wait outside.

The teacher thought no more about it until he was visited by the deputy headteacher during the lunch break at 12.50pm, and asked if he had “grabbed” the girl and thrown her out of the room.

Miss Levett said Mr Attah-Boakye was shocked by the accusation, which he thought was a “total fabrication”.

Melissa had made the same complaint to her mother, who arrived in the later class at 1.50pm. The incident caused such a disturbance that teachers in other classrooms heard it and went to Mr Attah-Boakye’s aid.

Tim Bishop, for Carney, said she was of previous good character and had acted out of “sheer frustration” because she did not have custody of Melissa. “Had her daughter been living with her she would have complained to police,” he added.

He said Carney, who suffers from a severe form of Crohn’s disease, had expressed a high degree of remorse to police and to the court.

Carney, of Ampleforth Grove, Hull, was given a 12-month community order with a supervision requirement covering anger management issues, improved decision making and “consequential thinking skills”. She was also ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid community work and pay £40 costs.

After the hearing, teaching unions said schools had a duty of care to staff and called for a review into the access parents had to teachers.

Mike Whale, Hull divisional secretary for the NUT, of which Mr Attah-Boakye is a member, said: “We don’t want schools to become prison camps where people don’t feel they can come in because I think the strength of a school is that it’s rooted in its community.

“The outcome of this should be that schools review the way that parents are able to access all staff in schools and if meetings need to take place they should be done properly with proper procedures in place. If it’s likely to be confrontational the teacher should have a witness.”

Steve White, the regional organiser for the NASUWT, said he was saddened to think Mr Attah-Boakye was considering his position but it was a growing problem. He added: “We are finding this more and more because it’s bound to scar anyone; whether they are in the classroom or the corridor, clearly it goes through your mind – what next?”

No one at the school or Hull Council was available for comment.