Teacher loses his job after writing a Facebook post taking on teenagers
 

Sky News Text:
[The Metro reports that a teacher has
lost his job after writing a Facebook post
taking on teenagers who made threats
against his wife.]

https://liveblog.digitalimages.sky/l...844a5d58bb.png

https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/30/teach...wife-18867572/

[A primary school teacher has been sacked
for writing a Facebook post after yobs threatened
to murder and rape his family, he has claimed.

Michael Flynn allegedly broke the school’s
social media policy by saying he would
‘sort out’ the youngsters who terrorised him
in his assisted-living home.

The 52-year-old said the group threatened
to have his wife Angela stabbed and raped
after she caught them trying to steal
a bicycle on Tuesday.

Mr Flynn then wrote on Facebook:
‘Four kids tried to steal a pushbike
from my front garden.
When challenged they were verbally abusive
and threatening to my wife.]


https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05...5451152551.jpg
[Primary school teacher Michael Flynn
(pictured with his wife Angela) claims he has
been sacked over a Facebook post he made
after yobs threatened to murder and rape his family]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rder-wife.html

Good on him if they did make those alleged threats to his Mrs and family. You can stick your social media policy right up your brown tea-towel holder if your family is being threatened.

Yes he must protect his Wife


But his Error
was using Facebook.

Now he is Fired.

Unfortunately for him, he is probably being held to a higher standard by the School because his the adult in the situation.

I think for the students in question who made the threats, I'd give them two punishments.

1. Have the Police come around to give them a scare, but not really charge them with anything. Just show them what will happen if they threaten to harm anyone again.

2. Give them Detention after School for a whole year.

They aren't at school though mock , they're out stealing other peoples bikes.

He effectively took the law into his own hands, and that rarely ends well

I think you are spot on with your assessment ..

Sadly many kidz have no respect for anyone let alone the police ( who they don’t fear these days )

Sadly many pupils simply don’t attend after school detention ..


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They're the kids and he's the adult, and he's a primary school teacher who is (and should be) held to a higher standard. He should have gone straight to the police and handled it officially.

Teacher loses his job after writing a Facebook post taking on teenagers
 

Agreed …

Or just ignore it and try and move on ..

The police probably won’t do much and it won’t stop the kids from hassling them anyways.. if he’d reported it then that may have made the thugs more determined.


Strange times


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IMO it's worth reporting these things anyway as it can be used as a timeline of escalation if things do continue. You can ask the police just to record the incident and not take any action, but basically means that if there's a history of logged complaints and something more serious DOES happen like an assault or serious vandalism/destruction of property, the police will take it more seriously if there's a history of reports.

And they'll probably continue getting away with it . I hate stories like this... whether the teacher should or shouldn't have posted on social media is another thing,but he was protecting his family against threats. So it's hardly fair that he's lost his job over it.

Firing him was harsh I think

I agree but I would be verrrrrrry surprised if there isn't more to this (i.e. previous misconduct and warnings).

And more crimes will go unreported. People feel powerless in these situations, I agree with SB with logging everything...as atleast you have some type of evidence.

Yeah maybe so

Or... Throw them in borstal for 18 months.

It Now Appears he was Fired
for

[He was forced out for challenging staff who 'cheated'
during Ofsted inspection]


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rder-wife.html

Sounds like a decent guy


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Nahhh these were his OWN pupils, primary school pupils, and he wrote unambiguously threatening messages on Social Media. There's no way he could stay on. This victim narrative that he's been targeted for whistleblowing is just sad and undignified.

Just not an appropriate response to primary-school aged kids mouthing off -- it doesn't even look like a viable threat. If these were teenage boys I'd have more sympathy but they're children playing at billy big bollocks... most likely would have **** themselves if a police car rolled up at their house.

A grown man threatening children on open social media for any reason is just nonsense, not really defensible. When you work with kids, you need a full disclosure document to prove that you're suitable to work with kids. "Thinly veiled threats to their parents of retaliationary violence against a group of kids" is a big fat fail. Should he be "punished" for it? No, not in the sense of punitive action for punitive action's sake, but he absolutely should have a black mark on his disclosure status and not be working with children.

only someone with serious anger issues would mouth off at kids on social media. He shouldn't be working with kids

Post police in the office today

Indeed, it's one thing if he'd just had a rant at home or at the time, but taking the time to type out a message on local Social Media (and surely in full knowledge that it was a bad idea in terms of his job) means to me that he was angry enough to simply not care about the consequences ... which I think could be referred to as "hot-headedness". Not really a quality you'd put on your CV to be a primary school teacher.

Didn’t they say they would rape his wife?

Some times you can push even the mildest person too far.

They're primary school kids which means they're 11 or under, and they said they'd get "older boys to come".

I'm not saying he shouldn't have taken it seriously, I'm saying he should have reported the little bastards to the police, but in terms of whether or not it was an actual viable threat ... it's much more likely that a bunch of 10 year olds just think they're being "edgy". Acceptable no and should be taken seriously, but enough to prompt a grown man to go vigilante with threats on children?

Even if you argue he was "pushed" it's not really much of a point ... no one is saying he should be charged or go to jail, just that he shouldn't work with children, if they can "push his buttons" in a way that leads to him being openly threatening. It would apply either way.

It's not like primary school teaching is a high-paid career that will significantly ruin his home life if he can't do it. He should give up on working with kids and move on.

I’m not defending him, I was merely looking into why someone goes to far

The right decision was made but years ago him or his parents would of given the kids a clip round the ear and that would of been the end of it.

There are quite a few posts on here that seem to support the teacher being sacked. I would suggest that the reason these feral kids feel empowered to wander round stealing and threatening people is that people have cut them slack their whole lives. I would firstly hold the parents responsible, especially if they were indeed primary school kids.

I feel like the teacher has been asked to show super-human restraint when his family was threatened and the school over-reacted to appease those people who think kids should get away with murder.

Didn't the article say they were kids though?

Either way a punishment needs to be given to them as well for the threats and theft.

I'd have it that the parents get fined if the kids don't attend after School detention.

That would soon get them to attend.

Totally agree livia but the do gooders have made it virtually impossible for adults to punish the little scum bags

Very little has been said by anyone at all about what should happen with the kids/how they should be punished/if they should be cut slack -- the fact is, a primary school teacher who uses thinly veiled threatening language towards primary school aged children (his own pupils), and not even in the heat of the moment, on social media (he had time to think about what he was doing, and approaches them or their families directly instead of going through the school or the authorities... is clearly not in the right headspace to be working as a primary school teacher.

It's not even about him "losing his job as punishment" it's just that he isn't suitable to work with young kids. It's not for everyone. Unfortunately in this case, he obviously can't continue as a teacher without working with kids.

We've personally experienced an issue with a threatening/abusive 12-year-old kid a couple of years back and we went through the school (who of course involved his mother) and the police. It was taken very seriously by all three and his life at school was turned upside down - was questioned and cautioned by police, had his classes switched, separated from friends, a long period of not being allowed to be unsupervised by an adult at school or on transport at all etc. and my daughter has never heard a peep out of him since. Sweet as pie these days.

There were plenty of consequences and solutions by doing things the right way. I somehow doubt it would have been as effective if I'd looked up his mum on Social Media and started mouthing off like a sad wannabe John Wick. There's a right way to do things as the adult in a situation ... and that's just as any adult, let alone a primary school teacher.

Again you have had a good outcome to a bad situation unfortunately those are few and far between

We have ten year olds raping other ten year olds

I’ve also had experience of a group of 13/14 years, big lads for there age making a petite 5,2 ladies life hell every time there paths had crossed

I went with her one day and found them and let’s say after I had a chat to them they never looked the way she was again

My daughter got bullied at school an all girls school so badly I had to take her to a doctor because they made her mentally ill

And I can honestly say the school was fcuking uselss
It was only when my daughter grabbed the ring leader and made her cry did it stop

And the bastards at the school had the cheek to speak to me about it

We would all like to live by the rules but when people fcuk with someone they shouldn’t they either get done the right way or the wrong way.

You know a lot about this teacher's headspace, his ability to work with kids and mixed it with conjecture about whether something like this has happened before. In fact, you'd be surprised if it hadn't. Not a word about the kids who made the threats and were nicking other people's stuff. Maybe we should have a whip round and send them on holiday or something....

I would suggest when hearing about someone who has been threatened, or where their family has been threatened, unless you've been in the position yourself you're not going to think it's a big deal.

I don't know which part of "he should have got the police involved straight away" makes it seem like I don't think it's a big deal.

I can even appreciate how emotive the situation is and the temptation to go Liam Neeson on the situation.

I just don't think he can continue as a teacher of kids that age. Even if he was to move on and be a high school teacher that would be different. But it takes a certain temperament for someone to be a good teacher to primary-school aged children and this is not it.