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Re: Dramatic events at school
For an inner-city comprehensive, there were quite a few:
A young lad in the second year (Year 8) died of leukaemia in 1989 - never knew him personally, and I suppose that I did feel a bit guilty about that in hindsight. He was pictured minus his hair although he was very positive about illness while he was still around. One of the Deputy Heads had announced his death in the morning assembly, and for nearly two weeks, tributes were published in the local newspaper classifieds. Not long after, the school decided to launch an annual award in the lad's name, and it was announced at the school's annual evening that they had each year. I actually won that award in 1991, and I went on stage and shook hands with a well-known councillor and other dignitaries who had attended - it was a proud moment.
In the final week of term Just before Christmas 1990, someone from the same year as me (but not the same class) had been killed after running across the main road outside our school. He had planned to get some Christmas cards for his class and was presumably so excited about Christmas that he wasn't concentrating on what he was doing, and a car hit him as he tried to make it across the road. Kids, teachers, domestic staff and members of the public surrounded the school, one of them told us to "go home - there's nothing to see - the show's over". In the local evening paper, it had been announced that he was dead - it even made the news bulletins on the local radio stations as well. We knew that he used to contribute to the community newsletter that the school published with his drawings, as he was a good artist. Obviously, that wasn't going to happen anymore.
The road incident nearly happened to a girl in my class when she was coming from and end of term disco - rumour had it that she was listening to a Walkman and wasn't paying attention to the sound of the traffic when she was crossing the road, although she was alright in the end - just a few bruises, I think - and it was almost forgotten about after Christmas.
The number of fights in the classroom, playground and out of school happened so often that I wouldn't have been surprised that out school had it own "Fight Arranger" in residence, just like soaps and dramas have in the credits at the end of the violent episodes.
I had to be taken home by a teacher who happened to be on his free period after I was injured travelling downstairs from a History lesson to a PSE lesson on a Monday morning. Someone had pushed me when I was midflight and was taking my time, but there was so many kids on the stairs that one of them pushed me from behind, I had lost my balance and I ended up in pain with several bruises to my legs and knees. Made an appointment with my GP on the Tuesday, telling him exactly what happened, and I think that I was off for the rest of the week.
There was the time when I was attacked on the way home from school, but as the perpetrator was someone from another school, that didn't really count. Still, it made me too scared to go to school, and it was the last time I went to school in a "mainstream" perspective. I was in Year 11, and it was February 1994 so there was three months to go before I would have left anyway.
The school in question closed down in July 1995 when it had merged with a neighbouring school. The number of pupils on the school roll were going down and down each year, but I believe that it was mostly because parents didn't want their kids to attend that school, rather than the fact that the near-by school was taking the pupils away from the one that I had gone to. I felt sorry for the staff and some the pupils, mind you.
I would never want to go back to those days of school.
For an inner-city comprehensive, there were quite a few:
A young lad in the second year (Year 8) died of leukaemia in 1989 - never knew him personally, and I suppose that I did feel a bit guilty about that in hindsight. He was pictured minus his hair although he was very positive about illness while he was still around. One of the Deputy Heads had announced his death in the morning assembly, and for nearly two weeks, tributes were published in the local newspaper classifieds. Not long after, the school decided to launch an annual award in the lad's name, and it was announced at the school's annual evening that they had each year. I actually won that award in 1991, and I went on stage and shook hands with a well-known councillor and other dignitaries who had attended - it was a proud moment.
In the final week of term Just before Christmas 1990, someone from the same year as me (but not the same class) had been killed after running across the main road outside our school. He had planned to get some Christmas cards for his class and was presumably so excited about Christmas that he wasn't concentrating on what he was doing, and a car hit him as he tried to make it across the road. Kids, teachers, domestic staff and members of the public surrounded the school, one of them told us to "go home - there's nothing to see - the show's over". In the local evening paper, it had been announced that he was dead - it even made the news bulletins on the local radio stations as well. We knew that he used to contribute to the community newsletter that the school published with his drawings, as he was a good artist. Obviously, that wasn't going to happen anymore.
The road incident nearly happened to a girl in my class when she was coming from and end of term disco - rumour had it that she was listening to a Walkman and wasn't paying attention to the sound of the traffic when she was crossing the road, although she was alright in the end - just a few bruises, I think - and it was almost forgotten about after Christmas.
The number of fights in the classroom, playground and out of school happened so often that I wouldn't have been surprised that out school had it own "Fight Arranger" in residence, just like soaps and dramas have in the credits at the end of the violent episodes.
I had to be taken home by a teacher who happened to be on his free period after I was injured travelling downstairs from a History lesson to a PSE lesson on a Monday morning. Someone had pushed me when I was midflight and was taking my time, but there was so many kids on the stairs that one of them pushed me from behind, I had lost my balance and I ended up in pain with several bruises to my legs and knees. Made an appointment with my GP on the Tuesday, telling him exactly what happened, and I think that I was off for the rest of the week.
There was the time when I was attacked on the way home from school, but as the perpetrator was someone from another school, that didn't really count. Still, it made me too scared to go to school, and it was the last time I went to school in a "mainstream" perspective. I was in Year 11, and it was February 1994 so there was three months to go before I would have left anyway.
The school in question closed down in July 1995 when it had merged with a neighbouring school. The number of pupils on the school roll were going down and down each year, but I believe that it was mostly because parents didn't want their kids to attend that school, rather than the fact that the near-by school was taking the pupils away from the one that I had gone to. I felt sorry for the staff and some the pupils, mind you.
I would never want to go back to those days of school.
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