Pupil given razor to self-harm by teacher

"A self-harming pupil was given a disposable safety razor to slash themself with at a school while being supervised by a teacher."

:eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-21941578

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

`Jts

11

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-21941578

"A self-harming pupil was given a disposable safety razor to slash themself with at a school while being supervised by a teacher."

"The school provides specialist education for seven to 19-year-olds with Asperger's, higher functioning autism and associated disorders."

Discuss...

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 2

miser

20

Who gave the pupil the razor? Surely not the teacher?

Reply 3

Bluffroom

11

That is very worrying, I hope that it wasn't a teacher who gave them it or that would be extrmely unprofessional.

Reply 4

Snagprophet

17

I assume it was either the teacher or the teacher was fine with it, considering it said they were supervising the self-harm pupil

Idiot.

That is rather scary, if it was a member of staff that gave it to them, surely there are better ways to deal with self-harm. Even under supervision it is not something considered appropriate in our society these days.

Reply 7

Tycho

14

Original post by ce90

That is rather scary, if it was a member of staff that gave it to them, surely there are better ways to deal with self-harm. Even under supervision it is not something considered appropriate in our society these days.

Apologies in advance if I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here, but how is giving such a child a razor any way of dealing with self-harm? You seem to imply that it's a strategy for doing so, albeit not the best one?

Reply 8

Pastaferian

17

Original post by miser

Who gave the pupil the razor? Surely not the teacher?

Yes, teachers gave her the razors, so that she could cut in a safe hygienic environment. This strategy was apparently implemented with the approval of her mother :s-smilie:

But not all teachers agreed, which is why the arrangements were discontinued.

Clearly, we are talking about a very troubled child. But if this was considered the best option, I wonder what options they rejected.

Reply 9

Kibalchich

Its not great that a teacher did it, but giving a self harmer clean and hygienic razors and bandages etc is one method of harm reduction.

Reply 10

Tiger Rag

22

In two minds about this:
- pupil is able to self harm "safely", reduce the risk of infection, etc; but it does seem to be encouraging it.

Reply 11

narnill

I guess it's similar to the principal of supplying clean needles to heroin addicts. I understand the reasoning but agree that this is not the right approach. It would be interesting to see what other efforts were made to deal with the issue. It's difficult to judge if you're not involved in the case.

Reply 12

Kibalchich

Original post by narnill

I guess it's similar to the principal of supplying clean needles to heroin addicts. I understand the reasoning but agree that this is not the right approach. It would be interesting to see what other efforts were made to deal with the issue. It's difficult to judge if you're not involved in the case.

It would be interesting to know if the teacher did it off their own back or if it was part of a nursing care plan. Seeing as it was a school for kids with learning disabilties, it could well have been careplanned. If so, then I don't have a huge problem with it. If it wasn't careplanned then that's worrying.

Reply 13

ce90

6

Original post by Tycho

Apologies in advance if I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here, but how is giving such a child a razor any way of dealing with self-harm? You seem to imply that it's a strategy for doing so, albeit not the best one?

No I tend to speak in an indirect manner, what I meant is that surely there is another way to treat such matters. I was implying that it should not have been used as a method at all. Apologies for being so confusing! It's a common occurrence in my life, confusing people with my unusual sentence structure and indirect speech! :smile:

Reply 14

Kibalchich

Original post by ce90

No I tend to speak in an indirect manner, what I meant is that surely there is another way to treat such matters. I was implying that it should not have been used as a method at all. Apologies for being so confusing! It's a common occurrence in my life, confusing people with my unusual sentence structure and indirect speech! :smile:

Suggest another way?

Reply 15

Tiger Rag

22

Some people on another forum suggest that ice cubes work instead. Not tried it myself yet.

Reply 16

Kibalchich

Original post by OU Student

Some people on another forum suggest that ice cubes work instead. Not tried it myself yet.

Again, we don't know if this person had tried that but went back to using a blade. I'd also think that ice cubes are not that convenient to carry around!

Reply 17

username952244

13

Better they self harm with some disinfectant on standby than have them cut themselves with a dirty razor and get an infection.

The kid was going to do it anyway, having the teacher sanction the self-harming also makes the student feel like less of a rebel/attention seeker, meaning they're more likely to see how stupid what their doing is and stop.

Reply 18

madmoofkh

I think people need to realise that self harming is an addiction, one that is very difficult to break the cycle of. Especially if the circumstances in that individual's life dictate that, in their view, hurting themselves is the appropriate way to deal with it.

Hospitals offer a safe environment to reduce the number of infections from self harm wounds (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/25/self-harm-hospital-assisted), at least they were trying to acknowledge that the problem exists. As far as I know, this has been stopped, but I can't find any more up-to-date information.

Original post by ce90

That is rather scary, if it was a member of staff that gave it to them, surely there are better ways to deal with self-harm. Even under supervision it is not something considered appropriate in our society these days.

ce90, yes you are right, but when you feel that you are getting nowhere by talking to people about your problems and life circumstances, and get constantly bullied from the age of 7 until you leave school at the age of 17, your parents bully you, your family bullies you, or you're struggling to deal with something that is completely out of your control then you begin to take it out on yourself because you start thinking that it's your fault.

Whilst I agree that informed consent should have been given, and it shouldn't have taken place in school grounds, the teacher was clearly (to me) trying to help someone who feels that this is the only way to cope.

I hope that the pupil can get access to help that will help them on the way to recovery.

Reply 19

Messalina

15

One of my teachers walked in on me harming when I was about 14 at school, he stopped, stared then walked off. Nothing was ever said or done about it.

The thing is, self harm is becoming more and more prevalent in young people (I think it's now about 1 in 12 young people that do it supposedly) and teachers are not trained to deal with it. They don't know what to do. I agree it wasn't the best idea to give the girl a razor, but better it be controlled and safe as opposed to harming with a dirty bit of glass without supervision.

Also to the above poster who mentioned ice cubes, I personally find it a terrible, terrible idea. Self harmers are people who associate pain with relief, replacing cutting with ice cubes doesn't solve the problem in the slightest, it just tells them that leaving marks is somehow shameful and wrong. Self harmers need more help, it really is a problem that isn't addressed properly, even by health professionals.

Pupil given razor to self-harm by teacher

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