Teachers Behaving Badly?: Dilemmas for School Leaders

Behaviour that involves an abuse of a teacher's position of trust or a breach of the standards of propriety is regarded as misconduct and may lead to a teacher being barred from the teaching profession. This book offers the school leader advice on making decisions arising from misconduct or alleged misconduct of their staff. It addresses issues such as:

• how to deal with an allegation of a teacher's sexual misconduct
• how to judge when a relationship between a pupil and teacher becomes abusive
• how to decide what to do about drug abuse
• how to support an 'outed' gay or lesbian teacher
• how to decide when private matters become public ones
• how to deal with the media.

Often there are no clear-cut answers, or easy solutions, but this book will raise the dilemmas and explain the employment and criminal law in jargon-free language. School leaders have to make important decisions about such incidents, considering their responsibility to their staff, to the local community, and to their pupils. Leadership training rarely includes exposure to these issues, but most people working in schools may have to face them at some point in their career.

Teachers Behaving Badly draws on real cases and explores the dilemmas faced, offering practical and legal advice to help school leaders prepare for such critical incidents.