Do I tell the school about this teacher's past?

[Friendoffoxes]

Longtime lurker here. A new teacher has joined my DC's school. It is a secondary and the subject she teaches is not one DC has chosen for options, so won't be teaching DC. I have only seen her on the website, so not come across her yet. Also I am married, so she wouldn't recognise me if she sees school related stuff with my name or DC's name. DH works from home so he does any pick ups if necessary, but DC normally takes the bus. Obviously I go to school stuff like performances, parents evenings, but do not get involved in PTA stuff or helping (dons Mumsnet hard hat)

I was a student with her and shared a house. She ended up stealing a significant amount of money (for a student) from me and two other people and when confronted tried to deny it and then tried to blackmail one of us (said she would tell everybody he had raped her-rubbish) if he would keep quiet about the money she had taken from him, and said the other two of us had agreed the money she had taken was a loan.

While we were dealing with this sh*t it emerged (don't want to go into details, but we started digging a bit) and she got expelled from a school because of bullying when she was younger. Also, her family got a shoplifting charge dropped (independent shop). Anyway, we decided to go to the police. We told her we would, if we didn't get the money back. Next thing we know, her family are on the phone, we have our money back with a nice generous extra added on top, on the condition we don't make any fuss.

We took it, we were young, trying to get on with our lives after graduating, skint.

Obviously she's passed a criminal check, but I'm horrified that she is working in a school. What do I do? do I have a quiet word with the school?

OP, you’ve really taken some flak here, and I totally don’t get the impression you were wanting to stir or be malicious, you were concerned about the integrity of a person in a position of responsibility, involved with children. Your accepting repayment and apt compensation at the time of the theft was perfectly reasonable, and to me, not just pragmatic but possibly magnanimous - choosing recompense rather than revenge. I also understand your concern. These issues may well have been related to youth and therefore the woman has turned over a new leaf. However, a false accusation of rape, an expulsion for bullying, a lack of probity in stealing and attempting to wriggle out of it - it’s hardly small fry. If your concerns are related to whether she is likely to have retained potentially harmful behaviour, you are being responsible by asking should you do something about it. Your having accepted recompense for the theft is irrelevent. You possess information that is not otherwise available. Also, in terms of safeguarding (which may be an issue - bullying and false rape accusions, however old), the wrong thing to do is to believe there is nothing you can do. If you think you are a good communicator, and you really are worried about this person, I’m sure you could have a quiet word with the head or safeguarding lead. It is highly unlikely to have any impact on her career if she has turned over a new leaf, as the theft cannot be proven, but may be a scrap of supporting information if other vague concerns float up. If you are upfront about accepting repayment and private compensation at the time, and make it clear you don’t want to make a fuss or have any agenda beyond concern, then I don’t think you’ll appear malicious or mad. However, you knew all the circumstances, and it may also be reasonable to wait and see, especially if you suspect she may have been very immature, struggling, etc. Don’t be disheartened by all the bile. You were wondering what was the right thing to do.

I think you need to make sure she never meets you or it could get very very difficult. Unpleasant situation . Nothing you can do

Poor little working class girl

Hi, again - how can it possibly be 'a scrap of supporting information' when the OP has no evidence? I keep repeating this and it's maddening but what on earth would your opinion be of an employer who took on board totally unsubstantiated allegations against an employee from decades earlier and with nothing to differentiate it from malicious gossip, used that to 'prop up' other concerns e.g. Point the finger at this woman if anything dodgy arises on the premises in the future. If I knew a headteacher who gave the time of day to someone rocking up with an unpleasant story about a teacher's past with not a whisker of evidence, no matter how much of a 'good communicator', I would seriously question that head's judgement. Staff need safeguarding as well; they should be safeguarded against people with an axe to grind. The Head has chosen to trust this staff member; this woman deserves to be judged on her own merits now with a clean slate. But even if she does engage in wrongdoing, it doesn't justify a system whereby any parent can run to the head and tell stories about a teacher that they can't prove and have that stored away as a potential black mark against them. In any organisation, that's outrageous. The OP has no solid reason to believe this woman is a risk to children. She needs to stay out of it.

To try to make it clearer, because the people suggesting a 'quiet word' are really irritating me - and I promise I am not a teacher with a dodgy past I'm trying to suppress here!

Imagine if someone from your school/college/uni days still bore a grudge against you for a falling out. That person goes to your employer and tells them a pack of lies about you.

Your employer listens to them. They give you no chance to respond to the allegations. There is no proof, but they keep it in mind. One day, something happens in your workplace and suspicion falls on you.

How could the headteacher in this scenario know whether s/he is acting as above or not? How do we know that the OP isn't on here just looking for ways to make an old enemy's life difficult and has made this story up to gauge our reaction and see if she's found a workable plan?

We cannot, just simply cannot, have a system whereby unsubstantiated allegations are allowed to affect someone's career - and by asking the Head to 'bear it in mind if something happens', it is affecting her career. The OP has no right whatsoever to do this and if she does, I hope the headteacher makes it abundantly clear how wrong and inappropriate she is to attempt it and also informs the teacher of what has been said. Under no circumstances should she keep it a secret.

Captain Brickbeard - well said. I would hate to think an employer of mine would listen to someone complain about me and keep a mental black mark against me when it could all be lies. In fact so would any of us, surely?
Although she doesn’t sound like a nice person then, it was long ago and your child is not being taught by here. Keep out of it.

Captain brickbeard’s intelligent response is a refreshing contrast to the ‘vigilante’ mentality of a few posters on here.

Fact is, some people are just malicious. Maybe their own life hasn’t panned out in the way they’d like it, or they’re envious of someone in a position of responsibility, maybe they just want to take their own frustrations out on someone. And in some cases, yes maybe they do harbour a grudge going back decades which may or may not be justified.

None of those scenarios justify going and having a ‘quiet word’ with someone’s employer. Anyone thinking it’s ok, seriously how would you feel if you knew your own boss had been told something detrimental about you (which may or may not be true, because there’s no substantiated evidence) and were mentally storing it away to use against you in the future?

People have a right to be protected from this sort of vile malicious behaviour.

I am a ‘boss’ in a workplace that is accountable to all sorts of public standards, and I wouldn’t even hold a meeting in order for someone to have ‘a quite word’. If they got in on some pretext and started in on a story, I would stop them.

There is a clearly stated complaints / communications system. That is there so that people making allegations do so in a recordable format, the target of the allegation can openly know what has been said, and the process of dealing with it can be dealt with in an accountable way.

Anything else is gossip.

I can’t imagine being able to get a meeting with the head of our school to have a ‘quiet word’.

The only time I would be going to the head if were an issue relating to child protection as in you have reason to think she might be a danger to pupils. In which case it would be your duty to report it to the school. This doesn’t seem like that situation.

Erm...youl wreck her life based on something she did in her past....Everyones entitled to eff up and turn their lives around. Get a grip.