Teacher arrested for attempted murder of pupil
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Updated
A teacher at a British school has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a teenage pupil and assaulting two other children, British police said.
Jack Waterhouse, 14, was taken to hospital with serious head injuries after an incident in a classroom at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on Wednesday morning (local time).
Police said there were initial grave concerns about the boy's condition but he is now said to be stable, although still serious.
A 49-year-old teacher from the school is now being questioned by detectives on suspicion of attempted murder and two counts of assault, police said.
Officers have been given permission to question him until Friday evening.
"It is appropriate to say he has been arrested on suspicion of assault of two further children at the time of the original incident," Detective Superintendent Adrian Pearson said.
"I can say that, allegedly as part of the incident, a weapon was used against the child. We are investigating exactly what did happen."
The other two children who were allegedly assaulted did not need hospital treatment, he said.
"The school have been working very closely with us to cooperate and to gain the full assistance of the children who were witnesses to what took place," Supt Pearson said.
Media reports said former pupils and parents had expressed surprise that the teacher, who taught science, was the one suspected of being involved.
"I didn't think the pupils would give him stick," ex-pupil Tom Blythe, 19, was quoted as saying.
"He was actually a decent bloke and got involved in school plays."
On its website, the school said it had been a Performing Arts College since 2002 and had been described as "rapidly improving" in a 2009 Ofsted inspection.
"All Saints' School is a lively, Catholic comprehensive school with a very special, warm ethos which is recognised by all who visit," the head teacher said on the website.
Supt Pearson said the incident was out of character for the school.
"It's a school where people send their children from a wide catchment area. There have been no similar incidents before," he said.
- Reuters
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