Bully at swimming. Post Reply

[Tinkerbell]

My daughter goes to swimming lessons with her school, i did not want her to go swimming last week as it was very cold. The swimming instructor was not happy that my daughter was not taking part, so he put hes whistle cord around her neck tightened the cord and told her not to forget her swimming costume the following week, if that was not enough he then doubled the cord and put it under her throat so her head was tilted backwards and reapeated dont forget your swimming hat !
I am disgusted with hes behaviour. I have told the head at the school but should i also be reporting him to the local council?????

[klh249]

As a parent and a teacher, I find this alarming. Each school has a code of conduct for their teachers and this certainly seems to violate and such code. It's good that you told the head of the school, but I think more should be done. I hope you all come to some resolution, but if it were my child - I wouldn't want that person around.

[JoanHolloway]

That is appalling! You need to make a formal written complaint, both to the manager of the leisure centre in question and to the council. The swimming instructor needs to be disciplined and your family deserve an apology.

[NPMum]

That is incredible. I think I would check in to see what the head was going to do regarding the swimming teacher, if the head follows through and disciplines the teacher then I would leave it; however, if nothing is done, I would report it to the council or social services. Putting it in writing is a very good idea. You may want to request that your child be removed from that teachers class. A pool can be a dangerous place if not monitored properly and what that teacher did shows a serious lack of judgement. If they don't let you withdraw your child, you may consider sitting in and watching the class.

What a horrible thing for your daughter to experience.

[Pud1]

The Headteacher of the school would not be able to discipline a teacher at the leisure centre. The matter needs to be reported to the Local Education Authority, either by the Headteacher or by you. They will be able to advise on the procedures that need to be followed. The matter certainly needs to be addressed as this behaviour is totally unacceptable. Let us know how you get on.

[whitehouse]

Just to offer an alternative opinion....I think it depends on whether the guy was aggressive when he did it and whether it bothered your child - done in an aggressive fashion then yes I agree you might want to complain (although sometimes I think you should just tell someone directly rather than go over their head at the first sign of trouble). If it is part of a wider pattern of aggressive behaviour then fair enough but if up until now you have had no issues I would probably deal with it in a more low key fashion.

[nell65]

Sorry to disagree with above post - you should be reporting this to the police!!! This is assault, basically this person strangled your daughter.
I don't know how else you describe putting a chord round their neck and holding it tight.
I would be screaming blue murder to the school, council, the police etc. i can't imagine how terrified your daughter was and will be - this will effect her in the future.
I was bullied badly by a teacher - who used to terrorise me at swimming lessons - I should have taken action it was wrong.
Please ring your local police station and report it, how old is your daughter if she is young this is even worse.
I work for a national newspaper, if you need my help in asking the police what action they are going to take please email me. I cannot believe other people are telling you not to take action, your daughter will be traumatised and is probably terrified of going to swimming lessons again.

[thinkstyle]

Regardless of whether your daughter felt is was aggressive, this behaviour was intended to threaten and intimidate - why else would he have done it (he was trying to get his point across by doing something where he was physically controlling a young child). At best is was highly inappropriate, irresponsible behaviour, at worst it is potentially dangerous. Plus it could lead to your daughter and other children being scared of their swimming classes.

I have to disagree with a previous comment which said that unless your daughter was upset by it then don't take action. Aside from the fact that she must have been sufficiently bothered by it to tell you, this behaviour is unacceptable and archaic and this man is a bully.

It is possible it was a one-off and he made a serious error of judgement, but in my opinion this needs to be officially recorded and he should be discplined accordingly. I'm not suggesting he must lose his job, but it could be that other complaints have been made previously or in the future so his employers need to know about his behaviour.

I wish you all the best with this and I hope your daughter is ok.