Google NASUWT

“If you trust Google more than your doctor then maybe it’s time to switch doctors.”

The following page is the result of using +nasuwt false allegations as the search text on Google :

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1994	Jun 26, 1994 - They are a direct result of unions' concerns about the increase in false allegations made against teachers. ... Chris Keates, an executive member of NASUWT, says: 'We do not seek to protect child abusers but we do need to protect teachers who have their lives shattered by pupils.' ... From Fear and loathing in the classroom: Allegations … - Related web pages www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fear-and ...
1999	Apr 10, 1999 - The NASUWT said it knew of three members who had committed suicide, and one who had attempted suicide, because of the stress caused by false allegations and press coverage. One teacher died prematurely as a result of an impending court case. General secretary Nigel de Gruchy said it ... From 'Expel pupils' for false abuse claims - Related web pages www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/apr/10/rebeccasmithers
2001	Apr 9, 2001 - More than 2000 teachers have faced police interrogation as a result of unsubstantiated or false allegations of abuse by pupils in the past decade ... The NASUWT report shows the number of allegations has shot up from 42 in 1991 to 159 last year. The NUT has dealt with 160 cases where a ... From Teachers face rocketing false abuse claims - Related web pages www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education ...
2003	Apr 4, 2003 - Many in the profession have said worries about false allegations of abuse could be behind the decline. According to the teaching union, the NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) there have been 1557 police investigations against members. ... From Male teacher numbers hit low - Related web pages news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/wales/2914661.stm
2004	Apr 15, 2004 - Teachers have demanded a change in the law to allow them to sue pupils for compensation if they make false allegations of physical or sexual ... Only 69 out of 1782 allegations of abuse made by children against NASUWT members over the past 10 years had actually led to convictions, ... From Teachers want right to sue over false claims - Related web pages www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education ...
2005	Nov 21, 2005 - "Teachers and others who work with children are extremely vulnerable to false allegations. NASUWT has campaigned for years for this to be recognised and for an investigative process which takes this into account to be introduced. "The guidance represents a significant step forward ... From Investigating abuse by teachers - Related web pages www.epolitix.com/EN/ForumBriefs/200511 ...
2006	Apr 21, 2006 - Mr Gee, from Huddersfield, was not a member of her union, the NASUWT. But Ms Keates said its campaign on false allegations had resulted in the government amending the procedures to speed up the investigation of allegations. "False allegations can completely devastate the lives and ... From Teacher posthumously acquitted - Related web pages news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4931172.stm
2007	Apr 10, 2007 - NASUWT Northern Ireland president Fred Brown said false allegations against teachers were becoming much more common and more sophisticated. "The internet is used to make allegations and these allegations are totally anonymous," Mr Brown said. He said those pupils found to have made ... From Teacher tells of false claim ordeal - Related web pages news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6540557.stm
2008	Mar 19, 2008 - Pupils who make malicious false allegations about teachers should be placed on a school register to protect other staff, a teachers' union ... The NASUWT union, for example, says it has had 2316 allegations brought against its members in recent years, of which 2231 have been concluded. ... From Call for 'crying wolf' pupil list - Related web pages news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7305252.stm
2009	Mar 3, 2009 - Hundreds of teachers are facing false allegations of abusing children every year, union leaders said. More than 800 claims are being made against staff, according to the NASUWT union. Many of the allegations follow attempts by teachers to discipline pupils who misbehave in class, ... From Teachers' careers 'blighted' by false allegations - Related web pages www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews ...

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The above information page is brief, providing only a minimal synopsis of the tales of horror and injustice. Already, it is evident that there were 3 deaths and 1 attempted suicide in 1994 … there it is, the starkest of realities … false allegations can kill ! Is it murder ? In my book it is; to deliberately subject any human being to stress with no regard for them or their feelings, knowing that they will be broken and destroyed by the process, by definition, must be murder.

I intentionally included NASUWT in the search phrase. There they are, the largest teachers’ union, doing nothing other than to expound their pride in maintaining statistical data. Teachers are not statistics, they are trained, experienced and valuable human beings. From 1994 to 2009, there is Chris Keates ‘looking out’ for her members’ interests – and achieving nothing !

Everyone seems to ‘tinker’ with peripheral concerns; should the teacher’s anonymity be protected, seems to be of paramount importance and, at all costs, any publicity should be minimized – it’s in everyone’s best interest. In truth, anonymity was the least of my concerns – if someone is suspended from school then it’s fairly public knowledge anyway. I am also of the view that, in many cases, maximum publicity at the start, is actually to the teacher’s advantage - whilst the LEA might not be permitted to use commonsense, thankfully much of British society can still recognize moral injustice.

A much more radical approach needs to be made to establish a fairer, quicker and more supportive process. Why should it be the school that picks up the chalice after the Police and CPA have been involved ? It could be better handled by a specialist and trained department of the DCFS. I also discovered that all the reports by the Police and CPA that are compiled and collated are not used by subsequent school investigations – why is that ?

So I make this plea to the policy makers and to the bureaucrats, involve us, the people who have suffered over the years, to help make certain that there is a system in place that works !

Old News - Same Story

Every Teacher’s Nightmare - The Independent, Tuesday, 28 June 1994

“Last year police completed 139 investigations into child abuse claims against members of Chris’s union, NASUWT, the second biggest teachers’ union. In 130 cases - including Chris’s - they failed to find enough evidence to bring a prosecution. The number of new allegations more than doubled between 1991 and 1993, from 71 to 158, and other unions say they have experienced similar increases.”

Fifteen years on ... it’s incredulous and scandalous to realize that absolutely nothing has changed and the same cruel and heartless rules are rigorously and ruthlessly applied today ... and tomorrow ?

And again, the NASUWT proudly tracking the statistical evidence. How many teachers have suffered during these long 15 years ? Indeed, how have they suffered ? ... health, divorce and even suicide ! Where are these statistics ?

In fifteen more years, will it still be the same ? Will the NASUWT be sitting before another Select Committee and speaking of their considerable amount of statistical data but not having done anything ? Will nothing have changed ?

Chris Keates : “This has been an ongoing problem. The NASUWT has been tracking this since 1991, we have done 18 years of work on this. I think I am right to say that we are the only union that has a database that goes back that far showing the issues relating to allegations made against staff.”

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The NASUWT database (ref. : APPENDIX B Page 19) only contains case references that involved the provision of a solicitor to assist teachers experiencing criminal arrest. In effect, this database might well be their accounts management system - they could query their financial accounts history to extract union expenditure relating to legal support for teacher arrests.

I would have expected the NASUWT, on such an important issue, to be able to provide substantial depth and content for all cases of false allegations including how many teachers never worked again in education, whether guilty or innocent, and indeed how many have committed suicide through the stress of their experience ?

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After 18 years, the NASUWT do not even have any literature / books that might help teachers who have been falsely accused or that might educate teachers about the risk to their careers and lives.

I wish that I could use stronger language ... it’s about time that Chris Keates got off her soap box and actually made a stand on this issue and shoved her database containing 18 years of statistical data where it belongs !

Refer : Part Of The Union

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I close this blog with an e-mail comment that I received from my arresting DC (January 2008) :

“I am sorry to hear that the whole situation has not been sorted by now (Court cases do not appear to take this long).

It is good that she has the support of you all to get through this and I cannot even think how she functions on a daily basis with the situation still not resolved.

I find it so hard to understand how in our society that Jane now has to present her own case and cross examine witnesses. That in itself appears to go back to the dark ages when victims of crime were allowed to be cross examined by offenders !”

In The News

BBC News	03 March 2009
Thousands of teachers ‘at risk’
BBC News	03 March 2009
‘Pupil’s slur killed my career’
The Telegraph	03 March 2009
Teachers’ careers ‘blighted’ by false allegations
Daily Mail	03 March 2009
Wave of false abuse allegations are blighting teachers’ careers
The Guardian	02 April 2009
MPs investigate allegations of teacher misconduct
TES	29 May 2009
Character assassination
The Times Online	17 June 2009
Pupils using social network sites to coordinate false teacher claims
The Guardian	17 June 2009
Child abuse fears prompt unfair suspensions of teachers, MPs hear
The Telegraph	18 June 2009
Abuse claim teachers ‘guilty until proven innocent’, MPs told
TES	19 June 2009
Threat to teachers’ kids

Teachers In The Dock

From BBC File on 4 - 03 March 2009 (Teachers in the Dock) :

Barry Sheerman, MP
(Chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Children, Schools and Families)

“It is the most damaging, damaging thing that can happen to a human being. Especially when this feeling of injustice, you actually haven’t done anything wrong. Many teachers are being very shabbily treated and I want to get to the bottom of it.”

“I think what the Government is doing is full of good intentions, but it isn’t being felt down there at the grass roots in the schools themselves, and I think that there’s got to be a much more significant announcement, that we’ve got to be much more fairly treating teachers. If I raise it and take evidence, and I can expose the misery this is unfortunately causing to a lot of teachers unfairly, unjustly, then I can, I think, bring pressure on the Government to move much more quickly to put it right.”

Barry Sheerman told File on 4 his Commons committee now plans to hold an inquiry into allegations against teachers following the Parliamentary Easter recess.

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“I was brought up to believe in honour, honesty and that ‘truth will out’ but it does not ! It all fails because nobody has the strength and moral integrity or conviction to speak out. This was not justice this was the act of cowards who chose to hide behind bureaucratic policies and procedures that were never followed correctly nor were implemented in good faith. They did what they did not because it was right, they did it because they could !

So I will continue to fight – what choice do I have ? I was once a proud person, a professional teacher who was devoted to her vocation, fostered a sense of value in a humble Chorley primary school and who had a love of children. I remain a proud person for I know that I alone in this utter travesty have behaved with dignity and that I am innocent. I have survived the worst that they could do to me and I promise them that I will not ‘put it behind me’ for to do so would be to accept the situation, something that I can never do.”

Teachers In The Dock

Efforts to protect children from abuse are intensifying but have some safety measures gone too far ? Julian O’Halloran investigates claims that over-reaction by schools to minor incidents or unproven allegations is wrecking the careers of hundreds of innocent teachers.

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courtesy BBC Radio 4 - File on 4

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In early January 2009, I started campaigning in earnest for legislative reform of existing policies that deal with allegations of assault by teachers.

I made contact with Helen Boaden, Director of News for the BBC. She was very sympathetic of my plight and suggested that the Radio 4 programme, ‘File on 4’ might provide the best initial investigative route, later maybe followed by television, suggesting ‘Panorama’ and the local news programme ‘Inside Out’.

So, in early February, I met with a BBC researcher from ‘File on 4’ to discuss aspects of my case and my experience. Later, I had a gruelling 3 hour interview by Julian O'Halloran. He was very kind, patient and considerate – it was an ordeal to relate my 20 months of pain and anguish.

In the end, my contribution was not used; they found 3 other cases that were similar that had involved Employment Tribunals. I was a little disappointed but it gave me considerable pride to know that I had catalyzed the creation of the programme and that I had been able to provide some guidance to the format of the presentation.

Subsequent to the broadcast, I was contacted by Julian O'Halloran with the good news confirming that Barry Sheerman, MP, Chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Children, Schools and Families, intends to initiate an inquiry following the Parliamentary Easter recess.

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For me, this is just the start for there can be no end until justice is delivered to all those who have suffered my experience and until existing processes are made fair and just.

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I extend my grateful thanks to the BBC team for their support and for the positive and optimistic results from their programme.

500 days

It has been 500 days since the start of my nightmare. 500 days of torture, pain and misery. Over these 500 days both of my parents died.

My mother died in September 2008. She had been so very worried about me and the injustice of my case. It is understandable that I blame her death on those who have relentlessly persecuted me. I blame them too for the fact that my case dominated what was to be the last year of her life.

What really hurts in cases like mine, is that no one stops to consider the utter destructive nature of such a false allegation. It is worse than anything that you might imagine.

If I had committed the crime of which I am accused :

• I would have failed as a mother and would have resigned immediately.
  
• I would have failed as a teacher and would have resigned immediately.
  
• I would not have subjected my partner and family to the extreme stress that they have all suffered and would have resigned immediately.
  
• I would not have exhausted my life’s savings in legal expenses to defend my case.
  
• I would not have subjected myself to the humiliation of undergoing a polygraph examination and at my cost.
  
• I would not continue to fight for justice even though the cost to my health is so very high.

I am a God fearing person and I swear by whatever oath that I am innocent. I swear on the sad memory of my parents that I am innocent.

I also swear that I will NOT stop seeking redress and justice; not just for me, but for all those poor souls who are suffering under similar circumstances and regrettably those yet to come in the future.