Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

- the Boy and the Fish

I have been thinking about fish quite a lot in the last few days. Not so much the battered variety, or a scientific analysis of quotas and net-sizes, but the story of the Norwich head teacher, the boy and the fish. You may have seen it in the press and been puzzling over it too. Although I have learnt not to trust the detail of media reports, it does seem that some things are evident from this story:
First, the boy concerned had been previously excluded from other schools and was an obvious handful. Secondly, the head master had thirty years of exemplary service and finally the judge threw the case out of court in ten seconds flat.

So why when a boy of such a track record accused a man of such calibre of ramming a fish down his throat did the Local Education Authority, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Police all over-react so outrageously? Why was it necessary to suspend him on full pay for weeks, why necessary to prosecute him? A fine career and reputation ruined by people in authority watching their own backs and preferring the word of a troublemaker against that of a pillar of society. Where is the mature judgement, where the robust wisdom to face down the aggressive but spurious litigation from such a source? Where is the common sense? Thank heavens for such a sensible judge, someone who is clearly refusing to take his PC pills.

We all want to protect pupils from abuse. We certainly need systems and safeguards in place. Most local organisations do their best and mainly get it right. But at least once a month in my constituency casework I see examples of politically correct, out-of-proportion responses by those in bureaucracies of all kinds. Throw in a few buzzwords, I need hardly mention them, and the sledgehammer slowly starts to rise. Pity the poor nut.

We are living in a world where slavish addiction to the rulebook and fear of litigation are colouring decisions of too many people who are surely capable of exercising their professional judgement in a far more skilful way. But they are scared, like rabbits caught in headlights. Scared of criticism from on high and being sued from below. Somehow we have to inject a healthy dose of common sense, proportionality, back into the public square. If you have any (sensible) ideas how to do this – get in touch.

posted by Nigel on Monday, October 13, 2003