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Head teacher abused in Croydon school gates smoking row



c0lz

North East Stand.
Jan 26, 2010
2,203
Patcham/Brighton
So head teacher receives threats and abuse for asking parents to refrain from smoking directly out side school gates while collecting their children as this sets a bad example."

and even set up a petition calling for her removal from the job after comments posted on the school's blog.
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Head teacher abused in Croydon school gates smoking row
Selsdon Primary School
Susan Papas was brought in to turn around the school after it was criticised by inspectors
A head teacher who asked parents to stop smoking outside the school gates has been targeted for abuse.

Susan Papas, 53, who was brought in to turn around Selsdon Primary in Croydon in south London, accused some parents of "negativity and bad manners".

It follows a petition set up calling for her removal from the job and comments posted on the school's blog.

Mrs Papas said the abuse "has to stop" and added that she was seeking legal advice and had contacted the police.

'Smoking picket'
The problems started after Mrs Papas wrote on the school's blog: "Whilst I don't have any jurisdiction over the behaviour of parents on the street, I do have responsibility for the pupils' behaviour on their way to and from school.

"In the spirit of this I would respectfully ask that adults refrain from smoking immediately outside the school as some may see this as setting a bad example."

Mrs Papas, who splits her time between Selsdon and Heavers Farm primary schools, said some parents replied to her post with abusive messages and hatched plans to hold a "smoking picket" to block the pavement.

She said: "I did put a very positive and gently polite message on the blog but it didn't go down very well with some parents."

'Rude and offensive'
In a subsequent post, entitled Standing up to the Bullies, Mrs Papas said: "I have been using social media for some years in my capacity as a head teacher and have never experienced the level of negativity and bad manners displayed by a handful of parents on here.

"I have also been told about the rude and offensive comments being levelled against me, and other staff, on social media. This has to stop."

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity Ash, said Mrs Papas should "not give in to the minority of parents" opposing the policy.

She said: "The less children are exposed to adult smoking the less likely they are to take up the habit themselves.

"Requesting parents not to smoke in the area immediately outside the school grounds is therefore reasonable and good practice."

Angela Harbutt, from the smokers' rights group Forest, said she had sympathy for the head teacher and that the abuse could not be condoned.

But she added: "I think she probably should have left it to the parents; they are adults and they should be able to sort it out between them.

"I think she has stepped into the middle. I think it has gone too far, this persecution of smokers."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24606053
 




Questions

Habitual User
Oct 18, 2006
24,721
Worthing
It's none of her business.
 


Barrel of Fun

Abort, retry, fail
Whilst I'm not one to suggest children should be protected/hidden from anything and everything, I think she is being entirely reasonable.

Surely someone can refrain from smoking for 15 minutes to avoid children walking through a wall of smoke or what-have-you.
 


GT49er

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2009
46,473
Gloucester
Threats and abuse, no excuse. But if the parents were smoking OUTSIDE the school gates, it was none of her business in the first place. In spite of the constant bleatings of Anti Smoking Hysteria (aka ASH) smoking in the street is still legal.
 




The Merry Prankster

Pactum serva
Aug 19, 2006
5,576
Shoreham Beach
Threats and abuse, no excuse. But if the parents were smoking OUTSIDE the school gates, it was none of her business in the first place. In spite of the constant bleatings of Anti Smoking Hysteria (aka ASH) smoking in the street is still legal.

She's not questioning the legality but the advisability.
 




Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
We do seem to be trapped at present in the over-internetted world of supposed grown-ups being outraged by being asked to do something that doesn't sound so freedom-destroying. I doubt many of the parents in spite of their addicted lust for more snouts really want their kids, or anyone else's, to take up what is universally perceived to be a bad habit. And helping to prevent that shouldn't be so rotten. The same as asking parents not to be necking flagons of Red Stripe just outside the gates.
 






Feb 14, 2010
4,932
No idea who said what to who but I know that I wouldn't tell a client not to smoke outside my office as they are the client. Working for the client is something the teaching profession is in the early stages of learning with free schools competing with each other. The teachers will however catch the rest of us up one day I would like to think.
 


Frutos

.
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patreon
May 3, 2006
35,493
Northumberland
I agree with her entirely, no parent would want alcoholics or heroin addicts hanging around a school gate indulging in their addictions in full view of kids, so why should this drug addiction be treated any differently?
 




Goldstone Rapper

Rediffusion PlayerofYear
Jan 19, 2009
14,865
BN3 7DE
It's none of her business.

Threats and abuse, no excuse. But if the parents were smoking OUTSIDE the school gates, it was none of her business in the first place. In spite of the constant bleatings of Anti Smoking Hysteria (aka ASH) smoking in the street is still legal.

Well, it is her business. Under the Statutory Framework of the EYFS (p. 24):

3.55 Providers must have a no smoking policy, and must prevent smoking in a room, or outside play area, where children are present or about to be present.

So there.
 


The Spanish

Well-known member
Aug 12, 2008
6,477
P
No idea who said what to who but I know that I wouldn't tell a client not to smoke outside my office as they are the client. Working for the client is something the teaching profession is in the early stages of learning with free schools competing with each other. The teachers will however catch the rest of us up one day I would like to think.

the day teachers are told to treat parents as 'clients' is the day the country is finally fked.

imagine an education system based on the corporate world. teaching outsourced to a call centre the third world or a post industrial british city. press 1 for history, 2 for geography...

the education ministry bought by a private equity firm and broken up in three years.

lets try and maintain at least some respect and dignity in this increasingly dignity free country.

this whole issue is caused by lack of respect on both sides.

oh that and a babyish shit stirring press and readership.
 


Feb 14, 2010
4,932
the day teachers are told to treat parents as 'clients' is the day the country is finally fked.

That day arrived for the rich with private and international schools years ago. Thankfully that day is now arriving for everyone else soon. Teachers will understand that they know when they get things wrong because that is when their schools fail to attract custom and they lose their job. They will know when they have done something right when their schools are packed and they are making money.
 




The Spanish

Well-known member
Aug 12, 2008
6,477
P
the day teachers are told to treat parents as 'clients' is the day the country is finally fked.

That day arrived for the rich with private and international schools years ago. Thankfully that day is now arriving for everyone else soon. Teachers will understand that they know when they get things wrong because that is when their schools fail to attract custom and they lose their job. They will know when they have done something right when their schools are packed and they are making money.

i would say a lot of independent schools in this country often have a far more 'traditional' education ethos, with esprit de corps, a genuine sense of belonging, and genuine values, and the state sector bears more relation to the corporate world with its constant bullshit, mission statements, buzzwords and insincerity.

the fact they turn a quid is because they are very good, not because they have modelled themselves on a corporation.
 




skipper734

Registered ruffian
Aug 9, 2008
9,189
Curdridge
She should take into account, that this is a community that set fire to it's own town!
 


Thunder Bolt

Ordinary Supporter
No idea who said what to who but I know that I wouldn't tell a client not to smoke outside my office as they are the client. Working for the client is something the teaching profession is in the early stages of learning with free schools competing with each other. The teachers will however catch the rest of us up one day I would like to think.

If you read the article, she didn't tell the parents anything, she asked. She was then abused for her trouble.
 




BN9 BHA

DOCKERS
NSC Patreon
Jul 14, 2013
21,451
Newhaven





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