Two teaching staff stood in court last week, in different parts of Britain, each charged with assault (人身侵犯) after attempting to remove a troublemaking student from the classroom. In both cases the men had been suspended(使暂时停职) from their schools and each had spent almost a year waiting for their cases to come to court. One man, Mark Ellwood, was cleared. The other was found guilty. Both cases show the almost impossible position teachers are now in as they try to keep order in schools. They have the responsibility for what goes on in classrooms, but it’s naughty pupils who have the power.
Ellwood was the comparatively lucky one. He was brought in to work with children with behav
ioral difficulties. When he asked a boy to take off his jacket and put away his phone, the pupil threatened to stab（刺） him. Ellwood removed the boy from the clas
s, and when the boy started kicking him, Ellwood swept his feet from under him and lowered him to the ground. Weeks later he was charged with assault. Social services decided that the charge made him a potential risk to any child, so he was ordered to leave his wife and teenage daughters and move out of his home. The judges told him that they hoped he would now forget his nightmare and restart his life.
Sixty-two-year-old Michael Becker is the man who lost his case and will now lose his job. He taught in a special school. On the day of the incident, they were making pinhole cameras when the 15-year-old pupil arrived late. He refused to sit down, and instead walked around the classroom, telling jokes. He ignored several requests to start work and refused to leave the classroom when asked. Eventually Becker seized the boy by his belt and sweatshirt and removed him to a nearby storeroom, with the boy falling down as he struggled to break away. A teaching assistant, sent to check on him a few minutes later, found him sitting in the corridor, clearly unharmed. Becker considered the incident over, but the next day he was suspended as the subject of a police investigation.
Why did two British t
eachers stand in court?
A. Because they were charged with assault on their students.
B. Because they removed a troublemaking student from a classroom.
C. Because they were suspended from their schools.
D. Because they tried to keep order in schools.
According to the passage Ellwood __________.
A. was found guilty and lost his job B. was too strict with his students
C. often punished his students D. was lucky not to lose the case
When the incident happened, Michael Becker __________.
A. lost his case and will lose his job
B. was teaching his students to make pinhole cameras
C. ignored several requests to start work
D. was suspended as the subject of a police investigation
From the two cases we can learn in Britain __________.
A. removing students from the classroom is not allowed
B. teachers have no power to keep order in schools
C. students can do whatever they like in the classroom
D. it’s very difficult to be a teacher
