5th year teacher slanderous remarks

[lee69]

Just needing advice please
My DD who is 15 has been very reluctant to head back to school after the summer due to one teacher who would berate her in front of the other pupils asking her "are you depressed" or saying "you are manic-depressive" she is not any but just a teen girl going through a hard time etc...we have spoken to guidance and I asked to have a meeting with the idiot teacher but guidance said she would have a word...? the catalyst of this teachers actions has pushed my dd over the edge and she started self harming and attempted an overdose and I have now withdrawn her from the school and she is about to somewhere else tomorrow...is there any route I should take in my serious complaints dealing with this teacher? I have other children in the school and dont want to jeapordies there education but I also can not sit back to let this idiot destroy another childs life, the head teacher is as much use as a chocolate kettle .

whilst in poor taste to say it, perhaps teh teacher has no idea that your DD really does have depression and maybe he/she thought they were being funny?

Why dont you phone and speak to the teacher in question or the Head of Year?

Thanks Maddy I have already had dealings with the head and to no avail, I also asked when I spoke to Guidance that I wanted a meeting with the "teacher" but I was kindly ushered away from the subject and the guidance teacher said she would have a word with him???
I also asked that if it were the case that my DD was indeed depressed etc should it not have been mentioned to a higher rank or possibly even to myself??? I think this guy "teacher" needs a serious lesson on the fact that it is shocking to say the least at his actions, but I just wanted to find the best route to do this

Hardly slander is it.

If you have moved your DD to a different school, I think it might be best to leave it now. I don't think it would go anywhere - surely it would come down to her interpretation of events against his, and as maddy says, it is likely that he was not saying this to be deliberately insulting or upsetting.

If your DD has been removed, then pursuing it would just be for what - revenge?

presumably the OP wants to stop this very stupid teacher inflicting the same public remarks on anyone else. Especially as she has other children in the same school.

lee, have you contacted the school governors? They are the next port of call if you are unhappy with the head's response.

sorry your dd is going through this. i can't see why you want to pursue this thing with the teacher. your daughter will have no more dealings with him. surely the guidance counsellor will have spoken to him and let him know it was inappropriate.

edam - this teacher may not actually be very stupid. He may not be aware of the circumstances. IME, schools do not always share information about students - possibly because of child protection issues. For example, I learned yesterday that a girl in my tutor group has had a horrid time over the summer holiday, and that this follow on from the death of her mother, in suspicious circumstances, a year ago. I taught her, part time, for some of last academic year, and was not told about ther death of her mother. Thankfully, I didn't, but I could easily have said something appallingly insensitive along the lines of "if you continue to behave like that, I'll have to contact your mum to discuss it"

The teacher in the OP has not, IMO, said anything slanderous - insensitive, yes, but given that he may not have been aware of the circumstances, I don't think the OP will get anywhere if she tries to pursue it. Her DD is the priority, and she has been moved to a different school.

I think saying 'are you depressed' or 'you are manic depressive' in front of the class IS pretty stupid, actually, whatever the circumstances. It's also cruel and humiliating.

The teacher is ignorant. Manic depression is called bipolar disorder these days. If he wants to talk about mental health, he should do a bit of research first. But he's not actually interested in the pupil's mental health, he's just interested in being rude and insensitive and humiliating her.

How the hell does HE know that there isn't a pupil in the class who is depressed, or who has a parent with bipolar disorder? He could have put that pupil off asking for help, by making it very clear that mental health is stigmatised. Shameful behaviour from someone who is supposed to be educated and supposed to be working in a caring profession.

I think it needs pursuing so this teacher does not say something similar again. He is either crap or cruel.

Thank you for your responses Edam/Durga I tend to be on your side of the fence in agreement that he is slanderous and stupid and it is downright bullying tack-tics totally directed at her in front of the whole class on several occasions and yes I do have other children at the school so it is a major worry for me. She has had a very hard year at school,and I have a huge concern that the teacher may indeed harm yet another child to a point they can not be rescued
My dd is now lucky to be away from all of this but I just can not sit back and let it happen again can I ??
I wonder how inappropriate his behavior would have been deemed if my DD had taken her own life

Do you genuinely believe that your DD was pretty much OK mentally before these incidents- or as OK as any 15 year old DD can be!? Or does she have a history of such issues? In the former case, I would find it hard to believe that a couple of daft remarks alone would drive a DD to self-harming or attempted suicide; in the latter case the school needed to be either better informed or have handled your DD better.

You need to be absolutely sure before you take it any further. You'd need to be sure that 'the whole class' did observe the incidents sufficiently to be reliable witnesses.

If it were me, esp with other DCs at the school, I'd leave it and 'move on'.