Skiving head threw sickie to go on bike trip in Cuba
A HEADMASTER who took a trip to Cuba while claiming to be off sick with stress has been banned from teaching.
Ian McCann, 59, conned school governors with a sick note to attend a charity bike ride in the Caribbean during term time.
Months earlier he had been twice denied leave to go to the event, despite pleading with school governors. Although the board denied his request, McCann secretly paid a £2,000 deposit and organised his trip.
Stress
Just before jetting off he handed in a doctor’s note, claiming he was not fit for work due to a “stress-related problem”.
McCann, head of Rosewood Primary School in Burnley, Lancs, left for Cuba in October 2015.
Yesterday he was handed three-year prohibition order.
A misconduct panel heard that in March 2015 McCann submitted a request for unpaid leave to go on a charity bike ride in Cuba, a but it was denied. A second application was also refused.
In October that year, McCann submitted a statement from his doctor which said he was not fit for work. He then went on the Cuba trip and on his return was suspended from his job.
The panel heard how McCann told a fellow teacher he had spent £2,000 on a deposit for the trip and was “going to go, regardless of the consequences”.
In a statement, the disgraced headteacher said he had been suffering from stress following the death of his father in 2014 and due to the challenging behaviour of some pupils at his school.
But in its ruling, the panel said: “It had always been the intention of Mr McCann to go on the cycle trip to Cuba during the autumn term of 2015, irrespective of the decisions of the governing body in March and April 2015 refusing his request for authorised leave of absence.”
It added: “The panel is satisfied that obtaining a doctor’s note stating that he is unable to work due to sickness between 12 October and 2 November 2015 and his subsequent absence from work between 12 and 25 October 2015 was a deliberate course of conduct on his part to enable him to participate in the charity cycle ride in Cuba.”
The panel found that Mr McCann had acted dishonestly and was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
Sorry
It concluded: “It is difficult to think of a worse example that he could have set to the staff and pupils at the school.”
In a letter to the Lancashire Telegraph in April of this year, Mr McCann said: “The location and timing of the charity event were outside of my control but were poignant and personal to my grieving over the loss of my father to cancer. I never meant the negative impact which ensued and I am truly sorry for this.”