Ruth Kelly in the news because....

[UCM]

Wow..... after the other stuff I am surprised to find myself starting another thread about Paedophiles apparently teaching our children.....

Sorry, I apologise for the heading Ruth Kelly, as it should have been Kim Howells, 59, who was at the time Higher Education Minister, who approved the case of Paul Reeve, a PE teacher.

I remember our PE teacher making sure that we all had showers after games, female obviously.....

Oh well another thread killed by me.

I wish the newspapers woudl stop asking for scalps. How are people expected to get on with the job? Very often it's the legislation thats wrong, not the peopel who have to work with it.

Yes, but who is in charge of passing and asvising on the legislation?

Fwiw, I'm not calling for her blood, but I do feel that the first reaction from TB was not concern or an apology, but that RK would not be resgning. Mmmmm...and how else would get the changes to the education system though Parliament?

I'm prepared to sit back and wait and see how she deals with it, but gut feeling is that whatever she does will be a long time in coming, and probably only after another internal enquiry.

UCM, my DH went to a boys school in the late 70's/early 80's and post games showers were also commonplace. I think you'll probably find that was the case across the board during that period, don't think it was necessarily anything sinister, tbh.

Whereas I went to a mixed comprehensive in the mid 90's and thought the showers were still there, we were not encouraged to use them (probably as much for time-saving reasons as anything else).

I think this has been over-sensationalised by the press ("surely not!", I hear you cry )

'and though the showers were still there...'

The tabloids have to fill the pages, don't they!! Still, I guess I might feel differently if my child was one of the ones he'd taught.

Don't clear a paedophile to work with children. It isn't rocket science. Apparently, this is not an isolated case is it? Aren't we being told that there are quite a few convicted / cautioned sex offenders currently working with children? I don't like it. I would freak if I found out my kids were being taught by someone who had previously demonstrated an unnatural attitude to children.

But it wasn't just Kim Howells according to news reports today. There are a number of letters stating "The Secretary of State for Education has reviewed....", etc. Now Kim Howells is not the Secretary of State for Education, Ruth Kelly is. She was contact back on 12th December by the Chief Constable for Norfolk about the case of Paul Reeves and on at least one subsequent occasion. She didn't see a need for an "urgent review" until it all broke in the news.

I'm sorry. These people knew that any connection with pornography or child sex material would jeopardise their careers. I think crying "human rights abuse" now they are finding it difficult to get a job a little disingenuous to say the least.

Message withdrawn

Apparently the reason for 'all children to shower' after games was because some kids were dirty/smelly and it got them clean. Also as we were approaching puberty starting to sweat etc.... Still the 2 femail games teachers used to stand, one at the beginning of the block and one at the end with a clipboard to make sure you had been through.

Getting back to my reason for posting this. If you have EVER been charged & convicted for any sexual crime, you shouldn't be working with Kids or any other vulnerable people (elderly, mental probs, etc)!

Or cautioned. Because that means you acknowledge that you committed the offence, so just because someone has been tried and convicted doesn't mean they aren't a danger.

Sorry, that should read just because someone hasn't been tried and convicted...

ahem! am I missing something here?

Government Ministers call for the resignation of the Chief Constable of Humberside(?)because information regarding Ian Huntley wasn't passed on to the relevant bodies - are we to believe that if the info had been available Huntley would never have got a job as a school caretaker? How can that be so? Here we have the information about these teachers on List 99 and still they are approved to work with children?

Rank hypocrisy!

i bet if it was ruth kellys kids there would uproar. she'd go spare.

Exactly, and she should resign as soon as!

heads should roll

they have put children at risk

Ineteresting article here which includes comments about Paul Reeve and the use of cautions by police, when it may be that they don't think that they have enough evidence to charge.

cant believe ruth kelly is only 37. anyway, she should resign. i dont think she will though, shes up tony blairs a*.

how is she holding onto her job? nuts

I know people always talk about a grey area, like the teacher who fell in love with the 15 year old and got married and they were together for 19 years, he's just been allowed to teach again hasn't he?

IMO though, if you want to work with other peoples children you have to be above reproach on ANY matter of child sex, be that child 5 or 15 and i know there's a huge difference there, but in that proffesion, the grey area shouldn't exist. To look after my children you have to be squeeky clen.

and clean too!

Just shows that this government is reactive not proactive. I think it hilarious they are trying to drag up the whole don't blame us it was the tories excuse!

Typical New Labour. How long do they need then to clear up this mess?

It is, like Mytwopence said, not rocket science. The fact there is a debate about sex offenders working in schools is farcical. So what if one of the cases was a teacher who eventually married the girl. He abused his trusted position with a 15 year old. End of story!

lets be fair, this country is the pits. its in a right mess. i wanna emigrate but DH doesnt.