Drunken head who called boy ‘too sexy’ still free to teach
A HEADMISTRESS who drank eight glasses of wine on a school trip and told a pupil he was ‘too sexy’ has been allowed to carry on teaching.
Gillian Rew ‘ held her breasts and made comments about them’ and told a student his chest was ‘better than her husband’s’.
During the weekend away, the 49-year-old also held crisps between her breasts and pulled herself up from the floor by holding on to a pupil’s ankles. Despite the revelations, she has not been struck off the teaching register but has instead been given a two-year conditional registration order, where she must have the level of alcohol in her blood tested every six months.
Mrs Rew – who was sacked from her £74,000-ayear post at Arbroath High School in Angus, Scotland, following the incident – last month admitted at a fitness-to-teach hearing that she had got drunk on the trip before having ‘improper contact’ with students.
The former headteacher, who is now employed by Scoltand’s main teaching union the Educational Institute of Scotland, admitted to the General Teaching Council for Scotland panel that she had stayed up until four in the morning drinking sauvignon blanc from a box and said she was ‘mortified’ by her behaviour.
A document detailing the hearing’s findings was published yesterday describing her conduct on the trip to Lockerbie Manor, an activities centre, in September 2014. It stated the former headteacher ‘accepted she had acted inappropriately in that she had sworn and told a boy in her charge to “put his body away as it was too sexy”.’ It adds that she touched a male pupil’s chest and said ‘it was better than her husband’s’.
The case panel decided Mrs Rew would not be struck off because of personal difficulties. She admitted that at the time of the trip she was ‘drinking more alcohol than was good for me’, partly as a result of working 14-hour days. She added that other members of staff were ‘behaving in a fashion that was hostile and undermining’.
She confirmed that due to her drinking she had no recollection of her behaviour but said that amount of alcohol had never made her black out before. Mrs Rew also said she did not believe any of her pupils ‘would have been particularly alarmed’ by the events, adding: ‘I honestly don’t think they were uncomfortable – I think they thought it was a bit of light banter.’
But she said she was ‘devastated’ and ‘ashamed’ by her actions.