Physics Teacher Fired After Using Pellet Gun As Part Of Experiment
” A physics teacher from St. Peter’s Collegiate in Wolverhampton was recently fired after using a pellet gun as part of an experiment.
Richard West, 53, wanted to demonstrate the rate of deceleration of a pellet from an air gun. He recruited around 20 students to hold sheets of paper out at arms length and fired a single round. The pellet passed through about half of the papers before deflecting off a desk and striking one student in the leg. Word quickly got out of the teacher’s lesson and he was quickly suspended and later fired, ending his 20-year career at the school, Daily Mail reports.”
The student accidentally struck by the pellet goes to bat , as do thousands of others , for the fired teacher as the Guardian reports …
” In the usual run of things, a teacher who has shot a pupil probably would not expect much sympathy from the classroom. All the more remarkable, then, that Richard West’s former charges – chief among them the shot pupil – have started a petition calling for his reinstatement.
West’s former students have leapt to his defence, saying he has been unfairly punished for a freak accident in which the victim suffered only a scratch. They have set up a Facebook page, Bring Back Westy, filled with tributes to the teacher’s popularity, and a petition which has almost 1,500 signatures.”
You can sign the petition here which at present has over 2100 signatures .
BRING BACK WESTY
” From everyone’s support on the Facebook page, it is easy to see that Mr. West means a great deal to all of us. However, we realize that we need an actual petition rather than a Facebook page with likes. Therefore, it would mean a great deal to both the students, and mainly Mr West if you will spend a few seconds to fill out this form.”
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