Ann Maguire, a dedicated and experienced teacher, paid the ultimate price when she was murdered by one of her own pupils in a classroom on April 28. A 15-year-old student has been charged with murder.
Maguire, a Spanish teacher, was 61 years old and due to retire this summer after teaching for 40 years at Corpus Christi Catholic College.
Since the 1980s, teachers in the UK have been subject to a tidal wave of criticism and abuse from politicians and the media. In 2011-12, over 17,500 children were expelled or excluded for physical attacks on adults in schools according to government statistics.
I am asking people to sign this petition because, when Cameron et al. have articulated the moral outrage we all feel, open season on teachers will return and politicians and the media again return to attacking and vilifying the teaching profession. Teachers are the ones who know how to teach. Government officials need to listen to teaching unions rather than lecture to them. I am calling on our politicians and media to begin a campaign to restore respect for the teaching profession in certain sectors of our society, and to cease to attack them in the media,
Tell Cameron, Gove and other UK officials to demand respect for teachers for the important work they do.
