Quizzes & Puzzles7 mins ago
Sex offenders and working with children
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No best answer has yet been selected by Dom Tuk. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Makes perfect sense to me! Obviously there will be one or two cases of people being on the sex offenders register that will fall into a much greyer area. I'm thinking off the top of my head, maybe a young man who thinks he's sleeping with a 17 yr old girl, and it turns out she's 15 etc. Instances like this can be reviewed. However, if you're convicted of downloading images of children, it's simple, you're never going to work in a field where interaction with children will occur.
Hi DomTuk, when I attended 'teacher training' after Uni we were made aware of something called 'List 99', which is a list of all teachers and child workers banned from working with children because they had abused their position and the sense of trust placed in them.
I was always led to believe this list was regularly checked with sex offender registrations and the like, but obviously this is not the case. I find it amazing that governments set up such lists with the best of intentions and no one remembers, or bothers to update or check them on a regular basis.
This government, and previous governments of the last forty years, have been simply unable to leave education to the people who know about it - the teachers.
Since the Conservatives came to power and saw the vote-catching potential of telling parents they had 'parent power' each Minister has done more and more damage, with more and more meddling, and more beurocracy and interference, until we reach the current incumbent - Ms. Ruth Kelly.
Ms. Kelly was appointed with little experience under the whimisical notion that, being a mother of four small children, she will understand about education. That is a logical as me saying that because i am short-sighted, i will be uniquely gifted to train as an optitian!
The crass appointment of Ms. kelly has taken a long time to be fully revealed, but given that she is in charge of a wilfully inefficient and medddling department, with no serious experience, it was purely a matter of time before her lack of ability and judgement came to be exposed.
She has added to her disgraceful lack of common sense and basic intelligence by trying to pass the buck on this whole sorry incident. This issue is not the problem, it's the tip of the iceberg . Get rid of Ruth Kelly, leave education alone, keep perverts out of child-centred jobs. How complicated can it be?
Yes, Ruth Kelly should go; the buck stops with her. She, like most of those before her have no idea of what's needed at the 'chalk face.'
As a retired teacher with thirty years' experience in a non-selective secondary school, I totally agree with you, andy; local schools should be able to decide for themselves what curriculum content best serves the needs of their local children.
Vic - it is somewhat relevant but I do not think the school itself should have the power to override a police and govt rule about who works there. They do not have the experience and should not have the authority.
On a wider note I think that there is a problem with the Sex Offenders Act. On the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 today a Magistrate quoted a case that he had been involved in. Two consenting 15 year olds were involved in a bit of "hanky-panky" when they were discovered by the girl's parents. They insisted that the boy was charged and as a result he served a 1 year prison sentence and is now labelled as a sex offender for life. Is that just?
Is anyone capable of answering the question of just what exactly is a "sex offender"? The public generally jump to conclusions such as paedophilia or downloading and viewing child porn but is it really as simple as that? What used to be known as top-shelf magazines are available everywhere, television is full of sexual content or just talking about it. Do we ban Page 3 pictures because of the moral damage they could be causing, or is it OK in order to sell newspapers?
If I understand the current situation correctly there wasn't even a prosecution, only a police warning. However....the guy must be guilty....no smoke without fire....let's stone him to death....that'll teach them. I thought this country was more civilised than that.
I have also heard of a university student who was caught short heading back to his residence after a few pints and nipped down an alley to relieve himself. He was caught in the act, convicted of gross indecency and is now a registered "sex offender". Does that mean he should never be allowed to be a teacher or work with children?
There are far too many grey areas which should be cleared up instead of classifying everyone on the register as being equally dangerous.