I might be crazy, but I have a lot more time for a teacher that thinks big and gets it horribly wrong than one who turns to textbooks and worksheets for inspiration. Bringing a pellet gun to school in the name of physics is an accident waiting to happen, and you can understand why the authorities didn’t appreciate its appearance (nor the subsequent accidental shooting of a student). But, boy that could have been a brilliant lesson!
I commend the student for forgiving his teacher and for flying the flag for a teacher that made a terrible mistake in the name of engaging his class:
A high school senior in the UK who was injured by his physics teacher in an experiment mishap has launched a campaign to have the man reinstated after he was sacked.
Richard West was suspended then sacked when a pellet he fired in a physics experiment rebounded off a chair and struck one of his students in the leg.
But victim Ben Barlow has since set up a Facebook fan page and an online petition for his favourite teacher to get his job back, writing “You’d do more damage with a safety pin”.
“Mr West set up an experiment where he was going to shoot through paper into cardboard boxes at the end of the room to work out the speed of the object and its deceleration,” the 17-year-old student wrote.
The incident occurred in November but last week Mr West lost his job.
Now the “Bring Back Westy” fan page is approaching 3000 likes and dozens of students leaving comments of praise and calling for their teacher’s return.
School principal Adrian Richards told the UK’s Metro it would be inappropriate to comment on the matter as it was “still in the appeal phase of the process”.
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