Advice on teachers mistake

[Mariekp]

Hi, I'm new to mumsnet and any advice would be much appreciated.
My child is in year 7 and seemed to be doing well. Parents evening was coming up and he confessed to sending a silly email to the whole of his year and finding himself in trouble with the head of year 7.
It was nothing serious so we were not worried. When we arrived to speak to the head of the year she had a different story. She told my husband that the email had said ' I am going to kill you' and that she had complaints off some parents.
We were horrified and asked why we were not informed of this and she apologised and said we should have had a letter and an email and would look into it.
My son was severely punished as both myself and my husband couldn't believe our son would send such a message and felt so disappointed in our son. It was so out of character.
We contacted the school to arrange a meeting with the headteacher to discuss this further and asked to see copies of the email which the head of year 7 said she had in a folder. We are due to see the head tomorrow.

The head of year 7 called me this morning and apologised for her mistake. There was no email about killing or anything of the sort. She got it wrong.

I am really very upset about this as my son was punished for nothing due to her 'mistake'
Surely if a teacher is going to accuse a child of making threats to kill she should get her facts straight first.

I am asking for any advice on how to handle this please as my husband thinks we should just leave it be but I want to make a written complaint against her

Thank you for your time

I think you need to explain clearly to your son that the teacher made a mistake and he was punished incorrectly and perhaps make it up to him.

As far as the teacher is concerned, she is only human. I'm sure she is mortified and will learn a lesson from this. A written complaint about a genuine mistake seems rather harsh, unless there are other issues with this teacher. Sometimes both schools and parents need to show goodwill.

Oh! That's terrible! So Im assuming your son denied it but you thought he was lying? How did you punish him?

So was it another child who sent the email?

This is tricky. Writing an official complaint will not achieve a great deal I don't think but by the same token you can't ignore it. Would you be happy for the head of year to apologise to your DS and leave it at that?

So did your son deny it when you told him why he was being punished?

Got it wrong how?
If she mixed up names of who did it etc, then yes a mistake. Hopefully 1 she won't make again.
But if no incident, no email, at all. Then I would have to ask where the alleged incident came from, her imagination?

The teacher just said she got it wrong and made a mistake. I just feel that to accuse him of something so serious she should have had the facts right and I feel so guilty for not believing my son.
He got a serious talking to and lost his privileges for the week. He also missed a friends party on Saturday. He was so upset and I don't know how to make it up to him. Thank you for your advice. I will speak to her tomorrow and won't take it further.
I know it may seem an over reaction but I think feeling so guilty of not believing my child has made me want to take it further.

'My child is in year 7 and seemed to be doing well. Parents evening was coming up and he confessed to sending a silly email to the whole of his year and finding himself in trouble with the head of year 7. '

Why did he confess to something he hadn't done?
Is there any evidence at all as to an email and who it was sent to, and from whom?

Maybe he sent an email but it nothing about killing people in it.

Sad he missed the party!

Easy enough for you to check what the email said, OP. Even if there was no reference to "killing" it would be useful to see what he did say. Also, I'm surprised he had access to everyone's email address.