Let me start off by saying how surprised I am with the sympathy Peter Forrest is getting from readers. Not only did he cheat on his wife Emily, but he broke the number one commandment of teaching by behaving inappropriately with a student. I am stunned that there are people who consider a relationship between a teacher and a student is healthy. I am equally stunned that they have no issue with the fact she is only 15. Would it be alright if she was 13, 10 or 5?
Now lets turn our attention to a school that seemingly refused to act when they had the chance. Bishop Bell C of E School allegedly allowed Peter Forrest to work for seven months after his relationship was brought to their attention. How can a school in today’s age be so inept?
The police were told as Bishop Bell C of E school in Eastbourne, the school Forrest taught at and Megan attended, also investigated their relationship.
Huge questions have been raised about how they dealt with the warnings after the Mail revealed they were warned seven months ago that something inappropriate was going on between the pair.
Students had seen them holding hands on a school trip to Los Angeles.
Headteacher Terry Boatwright has revealed that the school, the council, Megan’s parents and Sussex Police were working together when they went missing.
‘The school, in conjunction with the local authority, Megan’s parents, and the police had been addressing and investigating those concerns, in line with procedure, when this happened,’ he said.
The authorities involved are remaining silent on what exactly they were doing about the relationship.
The school, county council and police will not give details about their investigations, so it is not clear what action they were taking against Forrest or what Megan’s parents were told before they went on the run.
It has also been revealed that a child protection expert wrote to Education Secretary Michael Gove expressing concerns about the school’s protection policy.
Lucy Duckworth said they were ‘extremely hostile’ when she began asking questions about the issue but the school maintains it had a ‘robust’ safeguarding policy in place.
‘The policy does not commit to informing parents or the local authority of any suspected or known abuse. If there was a robust policy in place, the parents would be informed,’ she said.
‘What we found was there was a whole section on safe recruiting but very little on how to effectively protect children. I’m convinced that, had that policy been in place, the parents would have been able to make a decision on their prolonged contact and Megan would be with us.’
With a reaction as astoundingly pathetic as that, should we be surprised that this has happened before?
Parents at Megan Stammers’ school demanded an inquiry into its child protection procedures last night as more under-age sex scandals emerged at the Church of England comprehensive.
Incredibly, another teacher at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne was jailed three years ago for preying on teenage girls after grooming them on a social networking site.
In addition, a former chairman of governors at the same school is due to stand trial on alleged child sex offences next month. Some parents said their children were too scared to attend class after it was revealed how staff failed to remove married maths teacher Jeremy Forrest despite warnings that he was having a relationship with Megan seven months ago.
Robert Healy, a supply teacher at the school, was jailed in 2009 for sleeping with two girls aged 15 and 16 after grooming them on a social networking site. In a striking similarity to the Megan Stammers case, other pupils knew what was going on before he was caught.
Please click on the links to read two related posts on the same story:
Like this:
Like Loading...
Topical Teaching 