Postby stjparent » Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:33 pm
Coming back to the original topic ..
Following the Channel 4 item this evening, I wonder if many (or any) non-SES parents will be comfortable keeping their children at a school that has teachers in with an abusive history.
Whether or not the abuse was confined to the named teachers, the defiance of the school in saying that - even after the report and then Channel 4 bringing it to a wider audience's attention - they will not remove the teachers suggests that this is the tip of the iceberg.
If a teacher that abuses their power by such a wide margin cannot be disciplined (because they are SES), then it follows that any abuse of power is acceptable. All the apparently minor (recent) stories that I have heard of teachers overdisciplining the pupils fall into place. Quite aside from any potential cult issues about the SES, I personally feel extraordinarily angry (and hoodwinked) that an apparently caring school can have such a cancer at its heart.
I suspect that the trickle of non-SES parents pulling their children out, already becoming a steady stream, will now become a flood. Provided of course that people can find places for their children given the divergent curriculum.
stjparent