The teacher who shouts ‘Billy ball bags’ at her pupils
...and why they love their Tourette’s Miss
TEACHER Natalie Davidson screams “Billy ball bag” and other foul-mouthed abuse in class — yet pupils love her for it.
Most teenagers would find it hard to keep a straight face when a science lesson was sprinkled with expletives and outbursts of rude singing.
But it’s no laughing matter for the students or for 38-year-old Natalie – the only teacher in Britain with Coprolalia Tourette Syndrome. It is a neurological condition that not only makes muscles involuntarily tense but also causes excessive and uncontrollable use of foul or obscene language.
Natalie has lived with it for almost two decades after it appeared in the wake of a terrible trauma.
And she has spent 15 years learning to cope with it at Erdington Academy in Birmingham.
Determined to shed light on the condition, which affects 300,000 people in the UK, Natalie has bravely allowed cameras to follow her day-to-day life for a TV documentary.
She wants to smash the stigma around it and prove that Tourette’s, like any disability, is not a barrier to success.
Natalie refers to her condition as “he” and her pupils call it “Gerald”.
And in an interview with the Sunday Mirror she admits: “My Tourette’s is quicker than me, smarter than me, funnier than me and will always try to get me in trouble. He’s a little f***er.”
Natalie’s struggle with “Gerald” is detailed in The Teacher With Tourette’s, which airs on Channel 5 on Thursday.
She says: “Children are far more accepting than adults. If you treat them with respect and offer honesty then they will accept you.
“I offer hope and inspire students that, despite a condition or disability, you can succeed against the odds.
“In life they will come across people from all walks of life and part of my job as a teacher is to prepare them for that.
“They see I am m capable – they don’t see a disability. My Tourette’s makes kes me a better teacher.”
One of Natal tal ie’s students says in the documentary: “Sometimes she sings, sometimes she swears, rs, but whatever she says ays she doesn’t mean it. t. She’s clever and teaches s science so I can understand nd it.”
Natalie was diagnosed gnosed with the condition at 23 3 and doctors believe it was triggered ggered by a sex attack at university ty which made her world collapse. e.
She says: “It was s 10 days before my 21st birthday. . Someone got into the house and d I was raped.
“I was being interviewed nterviewed by the police and I kept having to stop because I was making hiccups and little noises that I had never made before and I had no control over.” ver.”
Her tics – involuntary untary muscle twitching and random ndom shouting – got worse and d Natalie feared she was going mad. d. She says: “I felt like I’d lost the plot. ot. I was scared I couldn’t hold things gs in and I’d shout things that I had not even thought or known. It was a confusing time
Tourette’s can get me in trouble ... he is a little f***er NATALIE DAVIDSON ON HER CONDITION ‘GERALD’
REGIME
She swears and sings but she teaches us very well ACADEMY PUPIL IN TV FLY ON THE WALL SHOW
ses
DEDICATED DEDICAT Natalie at a seminar and with Leigh-Anne
and I wa was trying to overcome t the battles I was having w with the rape.”
Her Tourette’s has landed her in scrapes including includi being arrested for shouting sh “I smell bacon” at a a cop. She was also fil filmed by callous passengers on a train while having a fit of o tics which made her yell: “Get naked and dance.”
But she re refuses to give in to the condition and tries to lead
as full a life as possible. Last year, in front of close family and friends at Stanford Farm, Shrewsbury, she married her partner LeighAnne, 34, a cyber-security consultant she had met at a a music festival.
She also travels the UK giving seminars to primary school kids to educates them about Tourette’s.
And she has shed 8st since filming the documentary, using exercise to cope with her condition. She attends a boxer
JOY Couple’s 2019 marriage
cise class, where she yells, “Pec-asaurus Rex” at the male instructor, has taken part in tough outdoor workouts and swims often.
She adds: “Almost every student now faces mental health battles and many have disabilities. I hope to inspire people with difficult journeys.”
The Teacher With Tourette’s, Thursday at 10pm on Channel 5.