“It is not only pupils and parents that level malicious accusations against teachers it is school governors, local authority representatives and even other teachers. Teachers sabotage one another and LEAs have whispering campaigns in order to scupper colleagues. There needs to be renewed emphasis on morality all round and the immediate dismissal and prosecution of anyone maliciously damaging another person’s reputation.”
Comment Daily Telegraph 15 Oct 2011
I was innocent of the allegations that were levied at me 4 years ago. I became the first teacher in the UK to undergo polygraph examination in a vain attempt to prove my innocence.
The problem is that when you have a malicious head teacher, a weak and inexperienced board of governors and a confused / corrupt LEA HR department then you’ve got a recipe for utter disaster.
No one has even bothered to ask why a school’s investigative process can take 6 months or more. What are they doing during that time ? The answer is nothing - time allows everyone to forget who you once were - the incident and its detail becomes blurred and all the while your mental state spirals out of control.
I lost everything because people lie - 30 years in teaching - it reached a point where they had to lie otherwise so many heads would roll ... the LEA tried to gag me by offering to pay me off if I kept quiet (A pittance of £10,000 !).
So what is needed is a system where malicious, vindictive and corrupt behaviour can be detected and rooted out. An accusation MUST be heard and investigated - but the process must not be dealt with by the school or LEA - it needs independent and accountable trained agencies and the teacher must have support - and not from their union - they are guilty of allowing this travesty to exist for over 20 years.
Jane Jameson (née Watts)
