Head is accused of hate crime after saying autistic pupil had ‘special needs’
She’s cleared after six-month police probe
A HEADTEACHER endured a sixmonth ‘disability hate crime’ investigation by police and council bureaucrats because she said an autistic pupil had ‘special needs’.
Janet Felkin, 60, was stunned to discover she had been reported to police after using the innocuous phrase during a governors’ meeting.
The school leader, who was described as ‘outstanding’ by colleagues, was discussing a child with autism when she referred to the pupil’s ‘special needs’, a standard term used regularly within education.
But after minutes of the meeting were posted online, the pupil’s father complained to the authorities, claiming his child would be offended by the phrase.
The father, a parent-governor at Blatchington Mill, a secondary school in Hove, East Sussex, said the child was ‘highly intelligent’ and the use of ‘special needs’ constituted a hate crime.
After fighting the accusations for six months, Miss Felkin has finally been cleared of any wrongdoing. She said yesterday: ‘It is a matter of great regret to me that I have had to spend a great deal of time and energy in dealing with ongoing vexatious accusations from a particular individual.
‘These have led to a series of investigations by different authorities, taking up time that I could have spent more usefully. Throughout this time I have continued to run the school to the best of my ability.’
Miss Felkin, who has more than 40 years’ experience as a teacher, took over as head in 2007. However, colleagues said she had been blighted by a string of complaints from the parent-governor, who the Daily Mail has chosen not to name.
In a letter to parents, the governor said Miss Felkin had been reported to Brighton and Hove City Council’s Partnership Community Safety Team for her comments about his child.
He said the incident was registered as ‘disability hate’ because the school did not remove the minutes from its website quickly enough.
Miss Felkin was not formally interviewed, but Sussex Police said an investigation had taken place. A spokesman said: ‘The Sussex Police investigation was not into a specific person, but into a report that the term “special needs” had been used at a governors’ meeting.
‘It was quickly established that no crime had been committed and the police involvement concluded. This was over a period of a few weeks. Janet Felkin is a headteacher with an excellent track record.’
The incident was also investigated by Brighton council and the Department for Education.
A spokesman for the council said school governors had received advice from the council’s legal team, and by the National College of Teaching and Leadership. ‘None of these bodies considered it appropriate to take further action,’ said the spokesman. ‘The council has no cause for concern about the way the school is being run.’
The term ‘special educational needs’ (SEN) is regularly used by the Department for Education and Ofsted. It describes a child whose ability to learn can be affected by a range of factors.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which affects social interaction, communication, interests and behaviour, are often classified as having SEN.
Blatchington Mill is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, which recently said Miss Felkin had ‘ been relentless in driving up standards and challenging underachievement in the school’.
In a statement, its governors said they ‘totally dissociate’ themselves from allegations made by the governor. Chairman Peter Sowrey said Miss Felkin had made ‘an outstanding contribution in so many ways’ and was ‘instrumental in the ongoing development of this thriving school’.
He added that there had been numerous accusations over a four-year period by the parentgovernor in question – all of which had ‘put a totally unnecessary burden on Miss Felkin while she has been trying to run the school’.
The same governor is alleged to have also caused ‘problems’ with a series of complaints at a primary school in Hove some years ago.
Brighton council’s director of children’s services, Pinaki Ghoshal, said the school had an ‘excellent and deserved’ reputation for its work in tackling bullying and hate crime.
‘Head has been outstanding’