Serious rumour circulating about a teacher- should I raise with school?

[freckles20]

One of my DC teachers has been off school since before December. He has been replaced with a supply teacher and I have heard, (although only via my son so it may not be true), that the usual teacher will not be back until at least half term.

Last night DC came home from a friend's house and said that he had heard that the reason this teacher is absent is because he had touched a student inappropriately.

I tried to talk DC about the fact that this may not be true, and that rumours ike this can be really damaging. Unfortunately he seemed pretty convinced stating that the 'head of his year' I told another student. Again, I told him that this would be really unlikely to be true- head of year would never share this type of information.

This carried on with my son stating that he had also heard that this teacher had had a relationship with a pupil at his previous school.

I am worried about these rumours and the damage that they could do to this teacher, who I am assuming is already struggling in one way or another as he is already taking a long term break from work.

I don't want to cause trouble for DC who has already had huge issues with his MH and finds school tough.

I feel though, that the right thing to do is to inform school of these rumours so they can deal with them and limit any potential damage. I'm not a teacher, I don't know how this works- but I'm thinking the best thing to do is to inform the school so that they can deal with it?

I'd tell the school. If its not true they will need to do urgent damage limitation.

You don't have to mention your son, just say that you heard 'X, Y, z' on the rumour mill and that you are concerned for the teacher if the rumours are untrue.

Goodness, I mean it could be true these things do happen but if it was I very much doubt that the head of year would be going about telling students.

True or not you should tell the school because either this poor teacher is having their reputation ruined or students have learned something they shouldn't and the school have to try and deal with that also.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

I'd tell the school. If its not true they will need to do urgent damage limitation.

They’ll only work on limiting the damage to the school.

Inappropriate touching in a school could be touching a student outside of the permitted touching rules. It could have been as simple as touching a students shoulder, I doubt that would be the reason a teacher would be sacked unless the school wanted to get rid. I’ve seen some interesting ways of losing teachers, generally observations are the easiest way as they are all subjective.

I'd also mention it. A rumour was circulating that a teacher was off sick with cancer which wasn't true and a school sent a letter clarifying

Yes. You need to tell the school.

They almost certainly already know. Kids aren't quiet! Or subtle.

But when parents start saying this rumour is coming home, they may decide to act.

Thank you for all of your responses. I will reply properly later but I just wanted to ask quickly if anyone can suggest who I would ask to speak to at the school with regard to this?

For context it is a large secondary school.

I would approach the head of head or deputy head but I absolutely wouldn't mention your son at all. I'd say I heard it "around" and be vague saying parents talk. A teacher at my school went to prison for this. It could be true.

Head of year, sorry.

Rumours exactly like this circulate around ds's school, and I suspect most schools, all the time. I'd be on the phone to the school every other month if I kept them up to date with the rumours mills, especially as they progress through school to older years.

I would tell ds not to fall for it, think about why would a teacher tell a pupil? It doesn't make sense, and then i'd leave be.

The teacher will either not come back, or will come back and pupils will have forgotten about it and started another rumour.

Perhaps email the head teacher.

One of DDs teachers was off long term sick a few years ago, the school didn’t provide any further information. There were rumours that she’d had a mental breakdown and that’s why she was off.
I bumped into the teacher outside of school and she was actually recovering from a serious physical illness, she was surprised that I and the other parents had no idea why she was actually off as she expected the school would have been more clear.

If they are rumours and there is no truth I’m sure the teacher would appreciate his reputation not being damaged.

I'd email the head or safeguarding lead.

DD2’s former school was in the papers quite recently after allegedly covering up more than one similar incident. DD did come home with rumours at the time which I dismissed as gossip. I would tell the school. If there is no truth in it they can quash it.

From my pov it sounds more like you are a gleeful gossip. You don't know it is a rumour, it could be fact. It is highly unlikely someone has not already stirred the situation anyway, if the teacher has been off for a while.

I would contact the school. I don't think you'll sound like a gossip at all as long as you phrase it factually and, as you said here, that you're raising it out of concern for the teacher. You aren't presumably going to be demanding to know what's going on or anything like that. I would email safeguarding lead and the head or deputy directly. I wouldn't email the head of year as they are implicated in the story you've heard.

Thank you. I'll contact the safeguarding lead. I won't mention DS, and I only want to make them aware of what is being said about this teacher whilst they are off work. They will deal with it if they think it is necessary. My intention was never to ask for any kind of information or explanation.

I'm not sure why I sound like a gossip. But I'm not going to argue the point.

Thank you for all of the responses.

Guidance teacher?

When I was in year 8 (so 12/13 years old!) another student started a rumour that my history teacher and I were having an illicit affair. She told everyone she’d seen me getting into his car after an after school club when it was dark and we thought no one else was around. He was a young teacher, I think he’d only just qualified so was about 22 at the time. When we were in class she started telling everyone we were into bondage and all sorts of shite I didn’t even understand at that age. Anyway, long story short the rumour filtered through to our head of year and I had to speak to her at length about a non-existent love affair with my history teacher. It was all rather ridiculous, the girl got into trouble for lying and I was left red faced for the rest of the year.

It’s unlikely to be true, no professional HOY would casually tell a student. Raise it with the school for sure but I doubt it’s true.

As an aside, if your son struggles with his mental health then I'd be discussing with him the impact on another human beings mental health that he could be causing by contributing to the spread of such a nasty rumour.

Approach the safeguarding lead at the school and explain, no need to mention your son at all. If pressed, say this is what the children are saying amongst themselves and you need to be able to deal with such conversations appropriately.

However, I wouldn't automatically assume these rumours are untrue. Yes, they might be, and it would be awful if it was mere gossip, but sadly, the children can also be correct.

I worked for years in an independent school and over that time there were a couple of instances where teachers were removed for safeguarding reasons. Often the pupils knew before we (the staff) did! Sometimes a pupil had confided in another and the confidence not kept; at other times teachers had made announcements to year groups and the news had travelled. Don't automatically believe that a teacher wouldn't, because I can assure you it can and does happen.

Don't disbelieve your son or automatically dismiss what he's saying as it's good that he feels he can share this sort of thing with you.

With or without mental health issues, your child needs to be taught the meaning of the words gossip, rumours and hearsay.

It may be true or it may not be true about this teacher but the evidence gleaned from other children are not facts.

I wouldn’t contact the school but deal with this in your own home with your own child.