Too feel devastated for the wife of the teacher who has run off to France with his 15 year old pupil?

[chipsandmushypeas]

What on earth went through his head when he decided to do this?! The poor woman has taken all her social networks down out of humiliation I presume. link

Crazy.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165861/Teacher-Heather-Wolfson-56-hits-suspended-diving-stranded-pupil-home.html

Sorry, it's a DM link, but it does show that sexual contact doesn't have to be suspected necessarily for a teacher to be sacked for inappropriate behaviour.

Crikey I imagine it will be something like her being in his car that will get him rather than much of the other stuff.

The police who interestingly having issued any warrants for his arrest and the school will be busily trying to work out which books they can throw at him.

haven't

But would you say that was fair Crikey, because I certainly wouldnt. That woman had done nothing wrong in my view.

I don't know how he has got away with the twitter posts to her. At our recent county wide safe guarding training session we were told quite clearly that we were to have zero contact with pupils through twitter, facebook etc unless through a school based account.

That's normal practice in East (and West) Sussex too. None of my teacher friends go anywhere near social networking and their schools would be very intolerant if they did. It's an absolutely clear, unambiguous, policy. Although I wonder whether he got away with as much as he did because he was using his "performing" name.

He will lose his job even if there is no proof of a relationship. He hasn't turned up for work for a start. There is the contact through social media and there is taking a pupil away without the necessary paperwork. I am not being silly here. I am just saying that the school will find something to sack him for even if there is no evidence of a relationship.

Agree that it will probably be one of his lesser misdemeanours that will get him the sack. If she doesn't tell, they'll have no proof of anything worse (assuming anything has happened).

He didn't tweet her directly, though, soverylucky. He just tweeted sentences, or thoughts, so had he have been asked, or if he is asked, he can deny they are about or to her.

I have been on the end of offensive tweets, the police and I know they are about my family and I,but as we are not named and they are not addressed to us, they can't do anything.

I doubt he will ever teach in this country again. Could you imagine turning up to parents' evening and finding out he was your daughter's teacher? I wouldn't be happy!

A student exchange teacher was sacked for using social media to chat (innocently) to pupils at my DDs' school, incidentally.

There's no way he'll keep his job. It doesn't matter whether he's had a sexual relationship with her or not. It would be perfectly reasonable to dismiss him for having an inappropriate relationship with a pupil. Running away with said pupil to France is more than enough evidence of inappropriateness!

Social networking wasn't that common when I was a teacher (only a decade ago though)

I took over an A level group in my first year teaching who had somehow missed an entire module out the previous year and I did give them my mobile number as an easy way to ask me quick questions about the coursework they were trying to catch up on over the Christmas holiday. I also gave them strict instructions that I wouldn't be impressed with txt messages before 9 or after 7, or on Christmas Day. The only question I got via txt was at 11pm on Christmas Eve. In hindsight it could have got me in to trouble, and it's not something I did with any other group.

I really don't understand why the school were letting them do one-to-one maths tuition if they had suspicions. I was never, ever in a room alone with a pupil - even if I kept one back to have a word, I always had the word in the corridor, or found a reason to keep someone else back even if it was just to tidy the books or something.

squeakytoy No, I wouldn't, ffs.

There are people wondering whether he could keep his job if sexual contact could not be proved. I don't think so. If someone can be sacked just for doing what this lady did, then I hardly think taking a pupil to France without permission (considerably worse, even if he doesn't have sex with her) will be treated more leniently.

I actually thought the point I was making was pretty clear. Evidently not.

At my DDs sixth form they do have teachers emails, but they are all school addresses rather than private ones.

However both my DDs knew it was inappropriate for any teacher to be in contact via Facebook, text etc. this was reinforced at school a lot.

QuickLookBusy email would have been much better, but back then (10 yrs ago) the school system was such that I couldn't check my school email from home and my personal email address at the time had my first name in it so I didn't want to give them that either!

I can't believe that another teacher from the same school was sacked for a similar thing, unbelievable! My eldest is 12 and she's always going on about a teacher in her school who 'all the girls say is a perv' and 'he drops something on the floor so he can look up my skirt.' I told her not to spread rumours that might not be true, but I wonder now..

He would have known as soon as they decided to run away together he was never going to go back to teaching.
financial dont know how long they can dissappear for as i dont know his financial position and at the end of the day the only thing that will make them give themselves up is most likely to be if they run out of money.
He could have independant means as Ringmer is not a cheap area to live and if they have the funds they could be anywhere and have no intention of coming back.

Autumn I would believe my dd if she said something like that. If what she says is true, it needs to be pointed out to a senior member of staff.

He could have independant means as Ringmer is not a cheap area to live

Nowhere is cheap round here and some parts of Ringmer are expensive. I know where he lives though and it is fair to say that you'd not automatically connect his house with someone who has the sort of independent means necessary to disappear for any length of time.

"If nothing is proven against him they would have to find a good reason not to employ him or potentially face discrimination charges." accusation of an inappropriate relationship would, I think, be enough reason not to employ him. Bringing the name of his previous employer into disrepute by leaving the country with a pupil would add to that. As a previous governor at a school I would find a reason not to employ him and under safer recruitment policies would have good justification in doing so.

Don't think he's thought that far ahead tbh. He's hardly acting in a manner which demonstrates a great deal of common sense or logic, which is why the "France = Lower AOC plan" doesn't really ring true. The likely thing that'll happen is that they'll soon run out of money, she'll miss her family/see news reports with her mum obviously devastated and they'll come back and he'll get his balls rolled by the press and the po-po.

"If nothing is proven against him they would have to find a good reason not to employ him or potentially face discrimination charges."

I can't go into too many details (it does not relate to a school issue either) but dp recently found himself having to implement safeguarding policies (along with the various agencies) and whilst there was a lack of certain evidence (which would be akin to a sexual relationship in the case under discussion) he was still able to dismiss the employee on the basis of an inappropriate relationship with a vulnerable person.

There are plenty of ways they can support themselves. Nobody knows how much money he has on him, for all we know, he could have a few grand in euros. There will be little publicity about this in most parts of Europe, so they could easily stay in hiding for quite a while.

In my opinion, less publicity about it would be better as one of them is more likely to make a phone call home to let someone know they are ok. The more this is in the headlines, the less chance of that.

Just heard on the news the police might have taken their phones last week.

Not got a better link sorry.

Megan Stammers police had phone

All the news reports and on this thread alone 800 odd messages, everyone here sharing the worry over Megan, when she herself is probably having a whale of a time, skipping school with her in her mind cool older musician lover.

There are a lot of kids in much worse situations than her.