A TOP teacher told staff to “congratulate” a colleague on his work – days after the school received an allegation that he had molested a pupil.
Janice MacNeill, the former principal of Donaldson’s School for the Deaf in Linlithgow, West Lothian, sent the message about a support worker who was later convicted of groping the son of a teacher.
Ms MacNeill now stands accused of failing to act on the warning about the sex attack by William Docherty and could be banned from the classroom if the case against her is proved.
She appeared before a hearing of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) this week where she is accused between October 2009 and August 2013
“of failing to follow child protection guidelines after being informed by colleagues of an allegation of sexual misconduct committed by [Docherty] against the son of staff member B”.
She is also accused of advising “colleagues that action was being taken…when in fact you knew this was not correct and no action had been taken”.
Ms MacNeill is also accused of failing to follow child protection guidelines in relation to a Facebook post by Docherty and an incident on a school trip run by Docherty during which pupils “engaged in a game of kissing and spin the bottle”.
The GTCS claims that in the light of these allegations, Ms MacNeill is unfit to teach.
Ms MacNeill, who was sacked by the school in 2014, denies all the charges. She denies being informed about the sex attack at the time.
The hearing in Edinburgh took evidence anonymously from a woman who was a teacher at the school at the time and whose son was the victim of the assault.
She told the hearing that just a week after alerting the school to the sex attack: “Janice [MacNeill] sent an email congratulating him for an award he won. Talking about the good work he was doing in the school.
“The email said that if we seen him in the corridor we had to stop him and congratulate him.
“When I read that I knew nothing would happen.”
The witness reported the attack to a member of staff. “She told me she would report it to the senior management team,” she said.
“I was then told that there was nothing they could do because of my son’s age and it happened outside the school.
“Janice never talked to me about it.”
The witness claimed Ms MacNeill told another senior member of staff: “She’ll forget about it’.
Another witness, who was also granted anonymity by the GTCS, told the hearing he alerted Ms MacNeill to the incident when it occured.
The witness said: “I handed her the correct paperwork. Ms MacNeill said ‘Yes, we know all about this’.
“I went to see Ms MacNeill and she said ‘it’s being dealt with’. She was frosty with me. My suspicion was she didn’t want me involved.”
“‘Its being dealt with’ was a reasonably standard reply with Ms MacNeill if your enquiry was not welcome.”
But the same witness admitted that paperwork relating to the case had since disappeared. He said: “Since my departure the paper trail has been lost. I am flabbergasted and disappointed but not surprised.”
Asked by Jamie Foulis, Ms MacNeill’s defence lawyer, if the forms could not be produced as they don’t exist, the witness said: “That’s wrong. Very wrong. I resent the accusation.
“Written papers were handed to Ms MacNeill in each instance. On three occasions I gave Ms MacNeill the appropriate forms. This is what I did.”
The hearing continues.
William Docherty indecently assaulted a colleague’s son at her birthday party.
It happened after mother of the boy had a 50th birthday party and invited friends back to her house.
Docherty asked the boy to go outside and wait with him for his taxi. Then Docherty asked the boy to accompany him to his hotel and then groped him. At Falkirk Sheriff Court in 2014 he was found guilty and placed on the sex offenders’ register.
A spokesman for Donaldson’s School said: “It would be inappropriate for us to comment while the hearing is taking place.”
