NEWS: Teacher Tells Pupils "I Could Blow Up Your Bus"

A supply teacher is facing a police probe after claims he told pupils he could put a parcel bomb on their school bus. It is alleged that pupils at St Bede's RC School and Sixth Form College in Lanchester, County Durham, were left terrified by Mazin Albarq who, it is also claimed, asked to know which bus they took home. The Physics teacher, who had been supplied to the school by an agency, was alleged to have made the comments to a class of 13 and 14-year-olds he was teaching.



Not exactly a thing to joke about to pupils after the 7/7 bus bombing!

I live in the area and this story has been all over the news today!

If the teacher did indeed say these things then he should not be allowed to work as a teacher again...BUT i also know how easy it is for school children to make up a little story about a teacher they didnt like!

Well, if the entire class says he said it, I'd tend to believe them.

Although I can't condone the actions of the teacher, he is speaking in terms of what has become common knowledge. Even if we desire to put our heads in the sand and deny the truth it will not change the fact that the possibility exists for anyone to do dastardly deeds.

Back when I was that age, our American history teacher, a Viet-nam vet brought a grenade to the classroom. We were at the time discussing the Mai Lai/Lt Calley massacre.

One of the young ladies wanted to see it, feel it, hold it, etc. He obliged by showing her how it was held and then with it in her hands he pulled the pin.

Many of us recognized it wasn't live. Certainly we knew this individual well enough to know that he would not purposely endanger any of our lives. Yet there was some tense minutes as we learned how hard it was to hold a little pressure against the handle.

In the end it snapped, a few ducked, a few laughed.

Oddly, he went on to work for the FBI.

Likewise a man in Dade county, Florida, once got in an argument with the county attorney and proclaimed he could see by the attormney's actions how someone could place a bomb in the court house. It was one of the last Mandamus issues in America, if I recall my history.

In the higher court, 5 of the 7 judges agreed that he had told the truth.

It must be true then, that any of us have the ability to do such things, rightly or wrongly.

Again I say these things not to condone the teachers actions but to place the reality of possibility on the table.

Ahh, Valhall, such a trusting woman...

These are English kids we're on about here...Little gits...I know, I used to be one!

All it takes is a couple to start a rumour and before you know it, they all say it as Gospel!

Plus, they're northern..don't want to trust them Rugby League playing, no coat wearing, funny-talking northerners!.......

But if it is true, then he should be banned from teaching and perhaps face some sort of criminal hearing. Making threats to murder, even in jest, is still a crime if someone makes a complaint.

in a related story, Lanchester, County Durham has taken first prize in physics. details at 11.

if the teacher did do this, it is wrong. no excuses. you can't toy with a kid's head like that.

however, it is pretty funny. the look on the kids' faces must've been priceless and I'm guessing the remainder of the lesson went off (pun alert) without a hitch.

Having done some teaching myself, a joke here and there tends to ease teaching and the relationship with your students.

If I were an arab person in front of a class of cocky shavs, I'd get into their line of thinking and make a joke like this too, it actualy is exactly the kind of jokes that catch with kids, contrary to what the thread author thinks.

Problem is, these kids are generaly as dim as a busted lightbulb and when you give them bad grades, they could use a perfectly good joke against you just like this.

This just to portray another scenario for this situation.

[edit on 18/10/05 by thematrix]

The Physics teacher, who had been supplied to the school by an agency

Agency? Interesting. Any idea which agency, and why a public school system is hiring teachers from an 'Agency'? 13, 14 year old College Students?

They called P.A. for a physics teacher. Apparently the Palestinan Authority and the Physics Association phone numbers are like one digit off.

Never heard of Interim or headhunter agency's Twitchy?

Physics is a high school subject in the U.K Crakeur.

A) He can.
B) They need to grow up.
C) Kids love making things up and I trust them [even in a group] as far as I can throw the lot of them.

Arab + Nasty teacher[strict] = terrorist label by the class smartass.

Edit:

twitchy, they use "Education Agencies" to fill in positions. They are teachers, who do not work in any set school but many in the region to cover for ill teachers.

[edit on 18/10/2005 by Odium]

? 13, 14 year old College Students?

College in the UK is for 16-18 year olds, so I can't understand this either. What you call a College we call University.

I think that this was a bad joke, but in this PC world where Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is now sensored because the term dwarfs may offend people, it doesn't surprise me at all.

Originally posted by bobsa
Physics is a high school subject in the U.K Crakeur.

in the US too, bobsa. I wasn't the one pointing that out.

Hey, this guy needs to learn when and where not to pull comments like this out of thin air. Obviously, the classroom is on the NOT list.

Here in California, our teachers are fairly set for life and end up pulling all kinds of crap in the classroom. Thankfully nothing quite as bizarre as what Gerogianne Harrell pulled (slitting her wrists in front of her class) but we do have our fair share of teachers who do pretty whacky stuff. Now, back to the point, that being that teachers should probably have their teaching certificates printed on Flash Paper for the first five years. Any screwups and....POOF...no more certification. Let them PROVE they can teach...then get a "real" certificate.

I doubt this guy's a terrorist. (If so, he's a fairly STUPID one.) But being a foreigner, and especially being a teacher, doesn't excuse crass behavior. Send him back to the agency and get a fresh teacher who doesn't play "terrorist mind games" in class.

[edit on 18-10-2005 by Toelint]

We had a teacher in high school that was accused by a girl that he failed in his class of sexual molestation.

My daughter knew the girl and she also was one of this teacher's students, when the rumors came out, he was put on administrative leave.

My daughter said that the girl was lying and that she has sex with many boys before and that they all knew her reputation.

The teacher committed suicided when he was brought up on charges, the girl never told the truth.

The teacher always told that he never did anything to the girl.

She had to quite school because the rest of the students that knew the teacher and knew her started to call her a killer and a lier.

After my daughter graduated she found out by some of the girl's friends that it was all a lie.

I have work with middle school children and they can start rumors that can not be stop and that can hurt many.

But in todays society and with so many problems facing our childre and us as people we have to listen and to react inmediatly.

I think everyone's too paranoid these days. I would hope that someone who has a degree in physics would be able to constuct a bomb otherwise they need to see their college about a refund. Maybe he shouldn't have made the comment to his class, but before I'd ready the firing squad I would need to hear the context in which the comment was made. Explosives and bombs are both in the realm of science, Physics and Chemistry especially. I could see a Physics teacher bringing up the subject of bombs and explosives in a class, especially after the events of 7/7. A good teacher would try to get his students interested in his class. I am not saying turn the class into Bomb Making 101, but a discussion in the Physics involved in a bomb or explosion wouldn't be out of line. It would also show how much energy can be released in even a small explosion and might make people think twice about doing dumb things with black powder and firecrackers.

I had a Chemistry teacher in high school and on the first day of class some of the students were talking and carrying on. He came into the room din't say a word, went to a cabinet in the back of the room and took out a few items, mixed some stuff together, put it on an empty table and stood patiently at the back of the room. About 30 seconds later there was a fairly loud KABOOM! Everything stopped, everybody turned and looked to where the noise had come from. The teacher stepped forward and said "Now that I have your attention we can get started.". From that day on as soon as he came into the room there was instantaneous silence. This of course happened over 20 years ago, a teacher doing this today would probably get life in prison.

Just because there are terrible things happening in the world doesn't mean that we need to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that certain things do not exist. Many governments have told their citizens that the best way that they can help against terrorism is to be vigilant. Keep an eye out for something out of the ordinary. How do you be vigilant if you have no idea what you are looking for?

When I was in the US Navy in the mid 1980's, my ship made a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. During that time there were several acts of terrorism committed against US and NATO installations. One of the duties that I had while we were in port was to stand Shore Patrol and security watches. Before I was allowed to stand this duty I had to complete a class on bombs and explosives. This class showed how the bombs used by terrorists worked, what they looked like and what to look for in case of a bomb threat. They handed around sticks of dynamite, chunks of Semtex, C-4 and other explosives. The idea behind was to teach us how to recognize the various elements that made up bombs and how to assess the credibility of a possible threat. Could the explosions on 7/7 have been either prevented or the number of people hurt and killed reduced if someone on the busses or in the subway had recognized something that they saw or smelled? I don't know.

Originally posted by Crakeur
They called P.A. for a physics teacher. Apparently the Palestinan Authority and the Physics Association phone numbers are like one digit off.

LMAO! Quit it, that hurt.

Seriously, maybe this is just another instance of stupidity calling for its tax. This guy is apparently mid-eastern - either that or his name is pulling a cruel joke on him - he's in a country that just got through a series of bombings, and he's going to make some kind of grand science point to a bunch of 13 year olds by saying...

For instance, I could have put a bomb on your bus today and you'd never know it.

*cha ching* Stupidity tax on that particular offense will be...



[edit on 10-18-2005 by Valhall]

Valhall, to be honest if anyone said that in my Physics classes we would have laughed even after things such as 9/11 the teachers we still making jokes and nobody cared.

This is more than likely, a few children getting bad marks with a teacher, taking something he said as a joke and they laughed about and using it as "pay back" for his actions.

I mean, one of my teachers makes jokes about how he hates white people all the time. Even when he was first teaching us, fact is his wife is white so we all know from the onset he is joking when he says he wants to segregate us from his "ghetto". Yet, I have seen people who take his remarks as a joke and later on make a complaint about it because they failed a piece of homework. That is the way it is. [He would have been sacked if he didn't have a 100% pass rate, for every studeny for 8years now. [At 150 students a year.]]

In fact, many Middle Eastern people I know make jokes about how they are "off to bomb" something because humour is a way to help beat down barriers that can divide us as people. A fantastic example of this is Black or Female Comedians, who always make fun of their stereotypes and we laugh...

odium it was after he quit working there and he was only there for a few days, i dont see why they would lie.

Originally posted by namehere
odium it was after he quit working there and he was only there for a few days, i dont see why they would lie.

Being someone who has worked in the Social Services and is working part-time for a law firm, people say things that were never said.

I have seen groups of kids, claim social workers sexually assaulted them [when he couldn't have because he was nearly 5hours away] because they didn't like his attitude.

This is no great leap of imagination.

Arab - Terrorist...

Any child who has seen the news could think of that "joke" to play and at their age, they do not see the consuequences it could have to the man.