Over the past couple of months, we received several e-mails that expressed worries about an incident that happened at Duke Street some 15 months ago.
The teacher involved in this incident has requested that we should not pursue this matter but has granted us permission to add her letter as a comment to this entry.
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1. The Beatles; 2. Coal; 3. White Christmas; 4. David Bowie; 5. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth; 6. Jingle Bells; 7. Always On My Mind (by The Pet Shop Boys); 8. The Snowman; 9. Pipers Piping; 10. Jackie Wilson’s (Reet Petite).
7 comments:
Dear Parents Helping Parents,
Thank you for your letter, dated 7 January 2009. After reading your blog, I am sure that your intentions are of the highest degree and find your articles both amusing and informative.
You have not let me down or added further stress to my life but have shown a kindness and support that has not been present these past 16 months.
Apart from the arresting police officers and my polygraph examiner, Don Cargill, you have been the first independent body to recognize the truth and to act on the injustice of my case. To be honest, I sense that the truth was never on the agenda.
However, I feel it is me who is about to let you down. I have no fight left. I have tried every conceivable channel to prove my innocence.
All that I wish for is to be allowed to leave Duke Street with dignity, having already suffered the humiliation of being sacked and almost losing my home. My fight has cost me my health and life’s savings. Needless to say, my family are still reeling in the aftermath.
It looks as though my fate has already been sealed, once again, and any further action will prove to be painful and useless. (I have even pleaded with the School’s Advisor for help but HR have advised that there should be no involvement.)
I hope that I might be granted early retirement due to ill-health. This will then enable me to pick up the shattered pieces of my life and slowly rebuild it.
Thank you once again for your kindness and enthusiasm.
Please don’t remove your children at the end of the summer term. Consider their happiness and progress.
To involve children in adult politics is wrong, as they will be the ones to suffer in the long term.
Good luck with your future endeavours.
Jane Watts
Thank you for your kind and supportive words in your e-mails. We will forward them.
Some of you have asked what can be done. The answer is that we don't know at this time. As we already said, we have been asked not to get involved, but keep your e-mails coming.
A couple of you asked why we have a link to Hanover. We were alerted to the fact that Lancashire County Council may have recruited the services of a London based PR company, Hanover. We presume that they are preparing for media involvement which, by the nature of this case, will be highly critical and could be extremely damaging.
In order to deflect press and media questions, Hanover will be able to advise the optimum responses and strategies by those involved.
These services are very expensive and we consider this to be a misuse of public funds (SEM), Somebody Else's Money, it is in fact yours and our money !
i've just heard and i'm really upset by this. she had two of my children and she helped me a lot. is there any way that i can write to her.
With regards to writing, we only have her e-mail contact. We suggest that you send us an e-mail letter and we will forward it. If you title it as 'Letter(JW)' then we will not even have to read it.
There is a difficult balance that has to be struck between protecting children from real abuse and giving the teacher the human right not to be punished or penalised in any way until proven guilty. I hope anyone who has made a false accusation has time to reflect on the damage they have caused - not only to the innocent teacher, but to future generations of abused children who may no longer be given the credibility they deserve.
However regrettable the details of this case may be, we can't afford to treat allegations of this kind with anything less than 100% seriousness. The real scandal is not that false allegations are made but that 15 months have elapsed without resolution.
I have written to Jane to help. The same happened to me over 3 years ago and she's right that the truth and facts do not matter. All that my school wanted was to suppress any and all information and that no one would know. It took me two years to appreciate that I had been silenced by the hope that it would be sorted out. A false allegation will live with you forever. Three years on and I am still not at peace. So it's never too late to fight and you must fight on.
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