Parents picket after teacher gets sack for plagiarism claim
WHEN a teacher expressed concern over a pupil’s research project, it never crossed his mind he was putting his job at risk.
St Dominic’s College in Welkom, in the Free State, suspended head of humanities Martin Challenor after charging him with gross insubordination for refusing to apologise to the pupil he had accused of plagiarism.
And last Friday the private school booted him out — not because it found him guilty of the charges but because, it claimed, he had repudiated his contract by, among other things, displaying a “recalcitrant and defiant” attitude during his internal disciplinary hearing.
The popular and outspoken history and business studies teacher said his only crime was pointing out to the boy’s mother several inconsistencies in her son’s life orientation research assignment.
But the school said this week that the pupil’s work had been put through an antiplagiarism software program and no plagiarism had been detected. It said Challenor had then withdrawn the accusation, but refused to apologise.
He was given his marching orders before his disciplinary inquiry was finalised.
Incensed at the news of his dismissal, parents and pupils picketed outside the school on Tuesday, demanding his reinstatement.
The charges included being unprofessional in agreeing to meet the boy’s mother and gross insubordination for refusing to apologise to the boy in front of his peers, parents and staff members after being instructed to do so by the headmaster, Shane Gaffney.
Challenor has lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission and the South African Council for Educators. “It was degrading for the headmaster to demand I apologise to a Grade 12 boy. I do not believe it is in the interests of education for any teacher anywhere in the world to be forced to apologise for wanting to check a pupil or student’s work,” he said.
Challenor, who was the supervisor of the life orientation assignments for 43 matric boys, said he had asked the pupil to meet him with his tutor to discuss Challenor’s concerns. “Instead, his mother met with me two hours later after getting in touch via WhatsApp. We found common ground on four of my concerns and agreed we would meet again to discuss another area of concern.”
But that meeting did not take place. A week later Gaffney instructed him to apologise to the boy in front of his peers and, said Challenor, “write a grovelling letter of apology” to the boy’s family.
“I wrote a gentle letter to the family that said: ‘Sorry the research task was so demanding and caused you grief.’ That was not enough for the headmaster, who sent me hurtful e-mails demanding that I apologise to the pupil.” Challenor refused and was suspended on April 21.
His disciplinary hearing began on May 26 but ended abruptly on June 2 , when, according to Challenor, he was “fired on the spot”.
But Steven Green, chairman of the school’s board of governors, said Challenor had accused the pupil of “unsubstantiated plagiarism” in front of his peers in a passageway and repeated it to the boy’s mother.
In response to the mother’s request to Challenor to provide evidence, he responded in a WhatsApp message saying that he was “drawing back from accusing the candidate of plagiarism”.
Green said: “The pupil’s work was subjected to a recognised antiplagiarism software program with the result that no plagiarism was detected.”
A pupil said Challenor’s attitude and teaching style “made me want to go to school in the morning. He was very supportive and he understood the youth. The decision to fire him was a bad one and the children are very disappointed that he’s gone.”
A parent, Johnny Abatzoglou, described Challenor as “an unsung hero”, saying that the Grade 11 and 12 pupils were heartsore.
“They arrived during the protest saying: ‘We don’t care if we don’t get an honours blazer next year; we don’t care if we don’t become prefects next year. We are going to support this man.’ ”
His attitude and teaching style made me want to go to school in the morning