Industry News
Nurse loses job at private school over smacking incident
Posted on 28th March 2008
A woman has lost her job at Malvern St James, a private girls' school, after she was accused of smacking her three children.
Susan Pope has worked as a senior nurse at the school for more than seven years but has now been dismissed over fears for the children's safety, despite the fact that the charges against her have been dropped, the Malvern Gazette reported.
It has now emerged that Mrs Pope smacked her ten-year-old son in the family home as a punishment for swearing at her, at which point he went and told his older brother Oliver, who contacted the police saying that the children were "regularly beaten".
Oliver has since retracted his claim, informing the newspaper that he "feels bad" about what he said - his mother has put it down to an act of teenage rebellion.
However, Ali O'Neil, director of admissions and marketing at Malvern St James, told the Gazette that their decision would remain the same.
"As the senior school nurse, Mrs Pope's position required her to have unsupervised contact with children when they are particularly vulnerable," she said.
Independent school teachers have recently complained of poor work practices in the private sector, with a number of staff working without the protection of formal contracts. 