Allegations about a teacher at school.

[Ccola]

A letter has been sent to all parents at my DD primary school. An allegation has been going around about a member of staff physically hurting a child in their care. It's been going around parent Whatsapp groups etc. The letter says this is not true and someone trying to cause trouble. How would the school know it's not true? and why would a rumour like this get started without reason? The people spreading the rumour are having to have a one to one chat chat with SLT and may be banned from the school premises and face legal action.

If they have irrefutable proof, e.g the teacher not working the day the accusation was made then that's one thing.... but I've also seen too many schools sweep things under the carpet and scare parents and students into just going away.

The fact that it’s floating about on WhatsApp would suggest that it’s crap. If you had a genuine complaint you’d go to the school, the police, the governors.

These rumours often start when a parent is unhappy with how the school has handled something their child did.

For example, child A in my daughters primary class attacked child B so badly with scissors that B had to go to a and e for stitches. School staff shouted at A to stop hurting B, she didn't stop so the staff member quite rightly pulled A off B and restrained her. Child A's parent then went round our village saying a member of school staff had 'dragged her child across the room'. She conveniently missed out the bit about why!

@Bushmillsbabe - that is shocking - I hope other people filled in the details she so conveniently forgot!

The people spreading the rumour are having to have a one to one chat chat with SLT and may be banned from the school premises and face legal action.

That suggests the rumour is in fact, bollocks.

The school could easily know it's not true - other teachers/TAs witnessed it, the parents/people have a history of making unfounded allegations, there is photographic evidence nothing happened or CCTV cameras, teacher wasn't working that day, teacher wasn't in the class/on playground duty etc.

That's true, thanks everyone. They have also said

'Over the past year, we have seen an increasing number of such false allegations being made on social media'

I wonder why this is happening

I certainly did, but the rumours went round the village for ages. Child A moved to the other school in the village and told all the parents there, and for ages I was getting comments along lines of 'gosh, I'm suprised you are happy having your child at that school'

People make all kinds of crap up, it's always been the way, some folk are just vile

Of course it could be true but you are asking why people start rumours, they just do

False accusations against teachers definitely happen. It did to my dad. The accusations nearly destroyed him. I’d not seen my dad cry before. It broke him and he left teaching soon after.
The allegations were proved false but the child was allowed back into his class and the allegations kept coming. Including the one where the child showed his tummy button as evidence of the injury my dad caused - apparently he’d poked him so hard it had left a hole…

Where we were lucky was that it was pre WhatsApp, and Dad had the support of the staff and loads of the parents. So he didn’t get finger pointing, by and large, he got messages of support. But it nearly caused a nervous break down.

The child was angry about something outside school
and deflected it on to someone else in a position of authority. There can absolutely be smoke without fire.

@Ccola I can see it being something along the lines of what @Bushmillsbabe has said.
Parent omitting their darling child's actions. If anything has even happened.

If they've made malicious accusations I would hope they would be banned from the premises.

I have seen the devastating effects of a false accusation of a teacher harming a child. It was proved to be false with a malicious motive. However, the rumour was out there, the teacher lived locally and her life was made absolute hell by local teens from the school. Her family was targeted and they had windows of their home smashed. No matter how many times the school reiterated that it was proven to be false, it was too late. Teacher has to leave school in the end as it became too much.
I think school having a heavy hand on this is a good thing.

I’d imagine that pre social media the rumours used to fly through face to face gossip at drop offs and pick ups. People use WhatsApp in the same way without thinking that their comments are recorded and they may face real consequences for what they’ve written.

There was always rumours going around at school but we just didn’t have phones and the internet to turn childish gossip into actual accusations.

I know many teachers have to deal with their photos and videos being spread around SM and there are numerous SM pages dedicated to certain teachers.

It’s a shame how these childish rumours can literally ruin a persons life.

I’m glad the school has squashed them once and for all.

Yes you're right, the school have all the evidence of this documented with names and are taking it serious.

My DD has only just recently started in reception, so it's shocking to me that people will make up rumours like this, thinking about the teachers reputation and their own wellbeing

the teacher lived locally and her life was made absolute hell by local teens from the school. Her family was targeted and they had windows of their home smashed. No matter how many times the school reiterated that it was proven to be false, it was too late

Lies always spread faster and further than the truth and they can leave a permanent stain on someone’s reputation even when they’re proven to be totally false.

An allegation about a staff member injuring a child in their care, would be investigated and the school almost certainly would be seeking LADO advice. Allegations like this can be career ending even if they are proven to be malicious, the teacher’s confidence is often destroyed as the investigations are very stressful for all concerned. Well done on the school’s senior leadership for tackling it.

At secondary you have teenagers involved but when it’s happening at primary level you know that it’s the parents, grown adults, doing this.

This is happening to someone I am close to. The accuser took to social media (FB) to accuse the teacher, naming them and the school. Teacher has been suspended for the last 9 months pending investigation. The accused has been through hell and will probably never return to teaching.
While there are cases of teachers behaving very badly and their actions require consequences trial by social media can destroy careers and lives based on malicious accusations.

It happens because parents don't want to believe that their little darlings do something wrong so make up crap to blame the teachers

The school might know it is not true because (for example)

The child alleges that Mr A did action B on day C but the school have on record he was ill at home that day

Or that he was teaching another class at the time.

However the school will still have investigated whether it might have happened at a different time.

I worked in a secondary for many years and we actually employed an ex-police officer for exactly this reason,

Let's say child A alleges that teacher B hit him. In my school all the children in the classroom would be separated out and asked to write their account of what happened in silence. This means there's less oppportunity for collusion.

The advantage of working in a school is the incidents are normally witnessed by 30 plus people. Teachers are generally advised not to speak to pupils alone, at least in part so that if false allegations are made there is another witness.

Many schools also have cctv which covers the playground/entrance so the school might know it is not true because they literally have video evidence of what happened.

Children lie. All the time. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not, cctv and the written statement system usually finds most false accusations out,

We had a horrible rumour go round about our old Head. CCTV proved it was a false claim, and the parent came in and viewed it. Even then they (parent and child) tried to say it had happened, but on another day in another area. I offered to sit with parent and watch the CCTV, pointing out that the new area was also covered. Funnily enough she declined.

I thank the Lord every damn day that we have CCTV... and laugh at the Finance bods that tried to say it wasn't needed in a Primary School. I swear we proved it's worth within a month.

why would a rumour like this get started without reason?

Do you watch TV? Films? Read novels? Have any experience of the human condition?

How would the school know what happened? Well I’m guessing that they will have a better idea than a load of gossiping parents.