leering male teacher!

[winnie1]

My teenage daughter has told me several times in passing of a male teacher who leers at girls but now it has happened to her and she is terribly upset. I am in such a dilemma. I am speaking to her head of year about it becasue I simply don't think it is acceptable that male teachers can make their pupils feel so uncomfortable. However, I don't want to overreact but equally I don't want to give my daughter the idea that her feelings don't count. Help, any advice greatly appreciated.

Winnie1 - I would have an 'unofficial' word with the head - so you are not logging an official complaint but just want to make the head aware. School is somewhere your daughter should feel secure - this teacher is out of line

don't think you are overreacting. there are an enormous amount of problems with male teachers that are often not spotted for years. if this one is leering at girls so obviously that he has a reputation for it, and if your instincts say that something is wrong, then there definately is. tell the head and tell your daughter that she must always trust her instincts, give this man a wide berth, and if necessary she should challenge him the next time he feels he is looking at her inappropriately.
i feel very strongly about this!

Hi, winnie - I just asked DD2 (who has now left school! Hooray! Well, apart from the little matter of sitting her A2s) if there were any leerers when she was at lower school; she said the main ones were the computer technicians, but they didn't leer seriously, and there was a NQT who used to go round town at the weekend with the students and got quite familiar with some of them, but that wasn't too bad, although she didn't like him much.

However she also mentioned the middle-aged, single, slightly odd French teacher who used to "perve on" a friend of hers who was very well-developed in Y9 - she said that was very creepy, and she would not have liked it, and as your daughter is upset she agrees that you should approach the head of year.

I suggested to her that maybe your daughter and some of the others who have been leered at could speak to the head of year themselves but she says no, it needs to come from a parent, after 7 years at senior school she has learned that they don't pay much attention to complaints from students.

Hope you can sort it all out OK.

Thanks for your comments!
I've spoken to the year head who seemed to be fully aware of the behaviour of the teacher concerned. I was informed that he will not be returning to the school come September!
Janh, thanks for your dd's take on the situation. I think (and others have said) that my dd is very together and quite streetwise so I know that the teachers behaviour must have been quite blatant to upset her so much. Wiltshirelass, I am proud to say that dd did ask him to stop as he was making her feel uncomfortable; quite a thing to do in a classroom of ones peers. She seems to have been picked on by the teacher for the remainder of the lesson, which was one reason why dh and I felt we should intervene. This is such a difficult age and I worry that what ever happens to her at the moment may effect the way she builds relationships. It does make me angry that someone in a position of trust can abuse that trust, and one has to wonder where it would end given the opportunity!

well done your daughter! she sounds great, to have told you about it and to have confronted him. and interesting that he is not coming back, but I wonder what if any other steps will be taken about him. he will probably just end up at another school. people like that spend years in the system, with everybody knowing and suspecting there is something wrong, but not being able to do very much about it. gives me the creeps

Late into this thread but only found this wonderful web site very recently. I have heard B my 12 yr old DD talking about the 'pervy' teacher at school but her and her friends think it's up for a giggle session. The trouble is and this is linked to the thread I started on entering Mumsnet, my daughter and her friends wear the shortest possible school (and other) skirts they can get away with. My eldest dd J who is 16 didn't do that but I am having awful problems with B about clothing, too little whatever she wears. B has never complained about the teacher to me however. The point is, he might not be pervy but being lead on, it can't be easy for them. My brother is a teacher at a similar school and confides it is a problem with the way the girls dress. He is, as he says, a male after all and they look far older than they are.