'Unjust' suspensions: Your comments

A report by the Children, Schools and Families Committee said too many teachers accused of misconduct were suspended needlessly and some have had their careers ruined.

The MPs said they were "shocked" the government let teachers be "unjustly" barred from contact with colleagues.

Accused teachers the committee said, should always be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

BBC News website readers have been sending in their comments and experiences.

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YOUR COMMENTS

As a lecturer in higher education I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of formal complaints by students against academics take place in similar circumstances, egged on by irresponsible and extremist students' unions that see it as their job to create a 'them and us' culture.

I'm sure the same syndrome applies in schools, only to an even greater extent because the pupils making the allegations are significantly younger and less mature.

What the vast majority of children who make serious and untrue allegations against their teachers need is coming down on like a tonne of bricks. And their parent(s), too, if they supported the claim.
Leo, York, UK

I personally know three teachers who struggle to get work because they have been accused of sexual assault by a pupil

Drawing attention to underlying issues by making allegations towards a teacher would be slightly more acceptable if teachers knew that when they are cleared of allegations they will be wiped from their record.

Of course this doesn't happen and I personally know three teachers who struggle to get work because they have been accused of sexual assault by a pupil, it has been found to be false but the allegation remains on their CRB check.

That is a scandal and one that needs to be sorted out immediately. I personally live every day in school on edge, making sure that if I am in one on one contact with a pupil that there is someone else around, the door isn't shut, etc. It doesn't help with my enjoyment of my job.
Paddy, UK

I was then fingerprinted and had a DNA sample taken, then bailed to return to the station

In January 2006 I was accused of an assault on a pupil. I was immediately suspended from school. In the middle of March I was told I had to attend Preston police station. There I was formally arrested, placed in a cell, then had a long taped interview, and returned to the cell. I was then fingerprinted and had a DNA sample taken, then bailed to return to the station in two weeks.

At that bail visit I was informed that CPS had determined there was no case to answer and no charges were to be brought. This was a massive relief and I thought the issue was over. The head of the school and the governors then took till January of the following year, 2007, to take me to a disciplinary hearing where I was found to have acted with gross misconduct.

The governors had been "minded" to dismiss me but given my previous 30 year unblemished record at the school and a number of procedural errors on behalf of the school and LEA reduced the outcome to the incident staying on my record for two years.

A further period of six months passed before I was granted an appeal hearing where in July 2007 my appeal, in my view, was won with the sanction being reduced to a one year record period and my "gross misconduct" was amended to be an "error of judgement".

I returned to the school in September 2007, and had a reasonable year given all that I had been through over the previous 18 months. Unfortunately in September 2009 an incident took place in my classroom where a Year 10 male pupil assaulted another pupil and then threatened me.

My GP signed me off work and referred me for assessment with the local NHS mental health team

This caused me that much distress that I had to be taken home from school and arrangements had to be made for my wife to be contacted at her workplace to come home to be with me. My GP signed me off work and referred me for assessment with the local NHS mental health team. They confirmed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and referred me for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

The school and LEA started steps to take me to an Attendance and Dismissal panel of the Governors in October 2008 this culminated in the termination of my contract in April 2009 as I had yet to be provide with the CBT treatment to address my PTSD and was unable to give a date for my return to work.

I am now unemployed and still no where near well enough to return to the classroom. So much for teaching being a secure and safe vocation!!
Pete Whiteside, Preston, Lancashire, UK

I eventually had a heart attack which my doctor attributed to my work situation

I was a head of department in a school with a departmental member with borderline personality disorder and an assistant head above me who didn't particularly like me. Due to her condition, my subordinate regularly made allegations against me and so I was frequently subjected to 'carpetings', despite managements awareness of my colleagues mental condition.

I left the school after telling a child his attitude was 'crap'. His response? He threw a chair at me and called me an 'f'ing ginger-haired c***' The outcome? He was suspended for a day, I received a six month disciplinary warning and was told if it ever happened again I would be out of teaching.

After developing hypertension as a result of my experiences, I eventually had a heart attack which my doctor attributed to my work situation. I am now no longer employable as a teacher and have no job. At 50 years old I am back where I was as a teenage dolee, except I get no dole and no pension. Why? Because I was constantly assumed to be guilty until proven innocent.
Gary Beesley, Manchester, UK

A colleague of mine working in education was accused of assaulting a teenage pupil in January this year, she was suspended from duty immediately and after four weeks of no contact from either the Local Education Authority or the police she was eventually contacted by the police and was instructed to attend a police station at a specific time and date and to also bring a solicitor with her as she was going to be interviewed under caution.

Prior to this instruction from the police, (over four weeks after the alleged incident) she had not been asked to give her version of events.

She doesn't know whether this unfounded allegation will appear on her otherwise unblemished record

The attitude shown by the police and local authority to my colleague left her with the distinct impression that she was 'guilty until proven innocent'. Fortunately, she was informed by the head teacher that the allegation was unfounded, unfortunately she has still not received any formal notification from the local authority or police that she has no case to answer.

Her concern is that she is due to renew her Enhanced Disclosure CRB this summer and she doesn't know whether this unfounded allegation will appear on her otherwise unblemished record.

The current process is heavily tipped in favour of the alleger and the alleged is immediately treated as a criminal before any formal investigation takes place.
George Davies, Liverpool, UK

When I was at secondary school an unpopular teacher was rumoured to be the subject of an "inappropriate touching" allegation made by a first-year pupil. When it emerged that the allegation was being taken seriously, a number of my classmates proceeded to make knowingly false accusations of their own, in an attempt to "get Mr G booted out".

The teacher was suspended, and investigated by the police. The police investigation came to nothing, but the teacher (for obvious reasons) felt unable to return (especially following the reporting of the story in the local press).

Less than two years afterwards the teacher (whom I personally found to be unconventional, but never inappropriate) had committed suicide. It is a hard balance to strike between taking pupil complaints seriously, and protecting potentially innocent teachers, but the balance does not seem to be there currently.
Al, Taunton, UK

I think the only way is CCTV in classrooms and schools generally. That way, at least if an allegation of assault is made, then the evidence is there. Parents will have to believe the nastiness their little darlings are capable of if the whole 'incident' has been recorded. Equally, incidences where children have been assaulted can also be proved quickly.
Jane Black, UK

I think children are given too many rights in this country compared to adults, aren't we all equal? With rights come responsibilities, and if the child is too young to understand its responsibilities, then the parents should be held responsible. I really feel for those innocent teachers accused. Perhaps if parents had to financially compensate the teacher for any distress caused (if innocent), that might dissuade false accusations?
Rachel, UK

The problem, as noted above, also applies to support staff. I was committed to my job in the local secondary school, but was forced to leave because of mysterious allegations of misconduct. I was never told what I had supposedly done, despite having asked to be told on at least 3 occasions - verbally and in writing! An employment tribunal found in my favour when I filed for constructive dismissal - and awarded me two years salary in compensation. I have now referred the head to the GTC who are in the process of investigating.
Anon, UK