The father of a student at Marlborough Boys' College is upset and "very worried" after a video of a teacher screaming at a child during a lesson surfaced online.
The video, which is circulating among the school community, shows a teacher walking towards a teenager with his fists clenched. The teacher leans right into the student's face while screaming, "Why are you laughing? What's so funny? What's funny?"
The student leans back in his seat and appears to be laughing. The teacher then puts his hands on the student's desk, leans forward and again yells, "What is funny".
The student responds, "It's pretty funny" and the teacher again yells "What's funny". It's unclear what they are talking about.
The teacher then stands up and asks, "What is so funny about making my life misery every lesson, why is that funny?", before the video ends.
The parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said the video was taken during classes on Thursday.
He acknowledged teaching must be difficult but said screaming at young people isn't acceptable.
"Who wants to send their children to school when they are going to get yelled at like that? That's abusive, if you look at the video [it looks like] he's almost wanting to hit the kid."
The parent said he was shown the video by his son who wasn't involved. But he said he still feels worried about sending him to school after the altercation.
"I'm very worried. I mean I am a forgiving person but to be honest with you, that teacher - I would like them to get fired.
"I definitely don't want that to be happening again, it's quite stressful really. I've spoken to a lot of other parents and they are really upset about the whole thing too."
He said while the teacher was clearly upset, there are better ways to handle disruptive children.
"Regardless of how difficult kids can be, if you've got an issue with a child you take them out of the class. And I actually thought that was the procedure that if a kid is being disruptive - the teacher will talk to them… not scream and yell at the top of their lungs.
"Verbal abuse of a child like that is unacceptable and it's actually quite violent because he [teacher] is storming up to the child to intimidate him...he's walking at such a speed that that kid, if you look at him, he leaps right back in his seat."
Do you know more? Email ireland_hendrytennent@discovery.com
He said he felt the school dropped the ball with their response.
"I spoke to the Ministry [of Education] and made a complaint. I also sent the video to the Facebook page of Marlborough Boys' College...they basically just told me to not share the video."
Screenshots of the conversation with Marlborough Boys' College, seen by Newshub, show the parent asking for the teacher to be stood down.
The school says the principal is dealing with the issue and thanks him. He then asks for the Board of Trustees to be involved in the investigation. The school replies saying they will be and asks him to delete the video.
"Thanks yes they will be involved too, please if you can delete the video and not share it that would be appreciated. Thank you for your help," the message reads.
The father said there was a lack of accountability and asking him to delete the video won't solve the problem.
Marlborough Boys' College Principal John Kendal told Newshub he is aware of the incident and is supporting those involved.
"I can confirm that we are aware of this and that we have very high expectations around conduct within our school setting.
"We are supporting those concerned and speaking with them to gain a clear understanding of the full incident, including the lead-up to this moment and its impact.
"We recognise there will be several different perspectives to understand and consider and will use these to inform our next steps. As needed we will seek advice to ensure that we act in line with best practice," Kendal said.
He also confirmed the school occasionally, for various reasons, asks for videos or images not to be shared, for instance if they are part of an investigation or were filmed without knowledge.
Ministry of Education leader for (Hautū) South Nancy Bell told Newshub they've received a complaint about the incident.
"We understand that the school board, as the employer, are managing the incident. We have received a complaint and advised the person that in the first instance they could follow a complaints process with the school.
"We are available to provide further guidance if they are unhappy with the outcome," Bell said.
