Aseemingly everyday event in a school corridor triggered a nightmare few days for Ben Roberts. The, now 35-year-old head of department had barely been a teacher for a term, when a pupil accused him of assault.
“I was walking along the corridor when I spotted a scuffle between two pupils, so I intervened,” he said. “In the course of trying to separate them, I was accused of hurting one of the boys, but in fact he had tried to take a punch at me thinking I was the other pupil. I grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him away.
“In my mind I was congratulating myself about my swift and decisive action and for not allowing the incident to escalate into something more dangerous, not realising that behind my back the boys were plotting to get me into trouble.”
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