Brenden Hills
The DailyTelegraph
January 18,2014
A STUDENT who punched his teacher in the head during class said he's not sorry the man was sacked for putting him in a headlock.
Former Riverstone High School student Jarrad O'Hanlon told The Sunday Telegraph he felt no remorse over the 2011 incident which ended the twenty-year career of teacher Stephen Krix.
Mr Krix, then a probationary science and agriculture teacher, was fired for misconduct for breaking NSW Department of Education and Communities strict guidelines by making physical contact with a student.
O'Hanlon, 18, was suspended over the incident, but claimed the teacher deserved to be sacked.
"I don't feel bad because he started it," Mr O'Hanlon said. "He provoked it."
He declined to comment any further and said: "I don't want any part of it".
Mr Krix lost an appeal against his sacking in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission earlier this month.
Stephen Krix sacked for putting student in a headlock after he was punched
The commission found Mr Krix should not have made physical contact with Mr O'Hanlon, despite Mr Krix arguing he was defending himself because Mr O'Hanlon was punching him.
Since The Sunday Telegraph revealed Mr Krix's plight last week, a Facebook page titled "Fix Our Schools - Support Stephen Krix" emerged last week and has more than 2000 'likes'.
An online petition calling the department to reinstate Mr Krix as a teacher has also received 100 signatures.
Mr Krix now works in the security industry and said he wasn't surprised at the teen's flippant attitude because "he's never been taught boundaries."
"I have no anger towards Jarrad because he's just taking advantage of the rules of the game," Mr Krix said.
"No significant action has ever been taken against him."
"I don't see asking a student to do his work as provocation … it's me doing my job."
The other incidents of misconduct included Mr Krix blocking the path of three students as they tried to run out of his classroom.
The third happened when Mr Krix's students kicked flammable liquid at each other - leaving one with serious burns - after he left the scene of the science experiment to stop a student stealing petrol from his car.
Mr Krix said the ruling meant teachers were powerless to discipline or stop students from physically assaulting them.
The punching episode was the second incident where Mr O'Hanlon physically assaulted Mr Krix during a class, according to his 168 page school discipline record tendered to the NSWIRC.
In February 2011, Mr O'Hanlon was suspended for four days for calling Mr Krix a "f***wit" three times and pushing him in the chest "very hard".
Asked whether it was appropriate to sack Mr Krix and how he should react when a student punched him, a department spokesman said: "action will not be taken against teachers who act reasonably in their conduct while disciplining students".
"Teachers are dismissed in circumstances where their conduct towards students is extreme and could not be considered appropriate given circumstances at the time," the spokesman
