Slap case head free to resume work

Pamela Mitchelhill has not said if she wants to return to teaching

A head teacher cleared of assaulting a disruptive six-year-old pupil is free to return to her job.

Pamela Mitchelhill, 50, was found not guilty of dragging the girl across a classroom at Crocketts Lane Primary School in Smethwick, West Midlands, and twice slapping her face.

Councillor Darren Cooper, the school's chair of governors, said the award-winning teacher's suspension had been formally lifted and he hoped she would choose to return to her post.

As she left Warley Magistrates' Court following the verdict on Tuesday, Mrs Mitchelhill would not say whether she planned to return to teaching.

'Outstanding work'

She told reporters: "I ask that now I am allowed some time to recover from my ordeal."

Mr Cooper said he thought the matter should never have reached court and added that the local education authority (LEA) was not responsible for the action.

If there are lessons to be learnt from this case I will push for change to be brought in Councillor Ian Jones

He said: "I am very concerned that the LEA seems to be taking the brunt of the responsibility for bringing this prosecution, when in fact it was a police and CPS decision."

Sandwell Borough Council's member for education, Councillor Ian Jones, said: "I am pleased to endorse the formal lifting of the suspension on Mrs Mitchelhill, who I know is a very dedicated and hard-working teacher.

"I hope the support the LEA is giving will help her return to the school to continue her outstanding work there."

Local concern

He added: "I know that local teacher leaders are concerned about how allegations against teachers and other staff are dealt with.

"Locally, I have given a commitment to the teacher trade unions that, if there are lessons to be learnt from this case, I will push for change to be brought in."

The regional negotiator for the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, Pete Cole, had said that head teachers in the borough were two to three times more likely to undergo a full police investigation in child protection cases than anywhere else in the country.

He said that over the past three years, five heads in the area had gone through a similar ordeal to Mrs Mitchelhill's.

Four of them had been acquitted.

Mrs Mitchelhill, who has an unblemished 29-year record as a teacher, helped lead Crocketts Lane Primary to the award of beacon status as a model of excellence.