A teacher friend of mine was recently the subject of a false accusation. It was upsetting for him, because he is a diligent and kind teacher who goes out of his way to approach his students with care and respect.
What he did was, in a lesson about smoking, illutsrate a statistic by using the class as a kind of human pie chart. Imagine this room represents all teenagers then these two tables over here would be the smokers. Of course, this led to some mirth. Some of the students at those three tables mimed lighting up, students from other tables pretended to waft smoke away from their faces and wagged their fingers at 'the smokers'. It was the kind of humourous, slightly silly moment that makes such lessons kinda fun.
A few days later he was called in to see the Head Teacher. One of the girls in his class has complained to her mother that he had picked her out in the lesson, accused her of smoking and encouraged the rest of the class to ridicule and insult her for being so. All of this was confirmed by the girl's best friend. Without approaching my friend (who makes a point of being approachable by giving his home phone number and email to all parents) the Mother wrote to both the Head and the School Governors threatening legal action if 'something wasn't done'. My friend was pretty distressed. Firstly, the accusation was a lie. Secondly, the Mother had decided to jump on her high horse without realising what damage she might cause.
Thankfully, he took control. He phoned the Mother and talked to the girl, who, when she realised that nobody in the class but her best friend was willing to support her story, admitted that she had exaggerated the situation. She said her behaviour was because she was upset because of problems at home. The situation was resolved.The Mother agreed that she had acted in haste. However, even then, the girl went around telling people that her Mum wasn't taking any further action because he had apologised, which of course, he hadn't. He'd done nothing wrong.
During the course of investigating what had happened, my friend discovered that this girl had a record of habitually accusing teachers of picking on her and that her Mother had a similar record of demanding 'something be done'. Nobody had addressed the fact that he spent many hours investigating and resolving the situation, when he could have been doing his job, that he suffered potential damage to his career and was put through a week of anxiety and upset that he completely did not deserve. The girl will do it again to someone else. It was simply my friend's turn this time.
What he did was, in a lesson about smoking, illutsrate a statistic by using the class as a kind of human pie chart. Imagine this room represents all teenagers then these two tables over here would be the smokers. Of course, this led to some mirth. Some of the students at those three tables mimed lighting up, students from other tables pretended to waft smoke away from their faces and wagged their fingers at 'the smokers'. It was the kind of humourous, slightly silly moment that makes such lessons kinda fun.
A few days later he was called in to see the Head Teacher. One of the girls in his class has complained to her mother that he had picked her out in the lesson, accused her of smoking and encouraged the rest of the class to ridicule and insult her for being so. All of this was confirmed by the girl's best friend. Without approaching my friend (who makes a point of being approachable by giving his home phone number and email to all parents) the Mother wrote to both the Head and the School Governors threatening legal action if 'something wasn't done'. My friend was pretty distressed. Firstly, the accusation was a lie. Secondly, the Mother had decided to jump on her high horse without realising what damage she might cause.
Thankfully, he took control. He phoned the Mother and talked to the girl, who, when she realised that nobody in the class but her best friend was willing to support her story, admitted that she had exaggerated the situation. She said her behaviour was because she was upset because of problems at home. The situation was resolved.The Mother agreed that she had acted in haste. However, even then, the girl went around telling people that her Mum wasn't taking any further action because he had apologised, which of course, he hadn't. He'd done nothing wrong.
During the course of investigating what had happened, my friend discovered that this girl had a record of habitually accusing teachers of picking on her and that her Mother had a similar record of demanding 'something be done'. Nobody had addressed the fact that he spent many hours investigating and resolving the situation, when he could have been doing his job, that he suffered potential damage to his career and was put through a week of anxiety and upset that he completely did not deserve. The girl will do it again to someone else. It was simply my friend's turn this time.
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