Sponsored by
Teacher guilty of bullying
A teacher ‘bullied, intimidated, undermined and victimised’ a bulimic colleague who later died, a misconduct hearing has found.
Moira Ogilvie, the former acting deputy headteacher at Rotherham’s High Greave Junior School, was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and given a sanction by the General Teaching Council panel.
The committee found she had bullied Britt Pilton, 29, who collapsed and died at the school in February 2009.
Ogilvie was also found to have made a rude two-finger gesture at a class of Year Six students.
An inquest ruled Miss Pilton’s stress and bulimia had been made worse by issues at work.
Miss Pilton had told other teachers she believed she was been bullied.
The hearing was told 11 members of staff complained about the way they had been treated by Ms Ogilvie – sparking an internal investigation.
The panel found Miss Pilton was one of three staff who were intimidated and victimised by the deputy.
Ms Ogilvie asked staff to monitor and report on Miss Pilton and two other colleagues without their knowledge, the committee found.
She also breached confidentiality by ‘inappropriately discussing privileged or confidential’ information with colleagues and others.
The panel said Ms Ogilvie’s claim that such sensitive information was only shared with the senior leadership team was not ‘credible’.
It also found she acted inappropriately in front of pupils by the ‘raising of two fingers to the year six class’ and other incidents.
The committee took into account Ms Ogilvie’s previous good history as a teacher and imposed a conditional registration order.
It recognised Ms Ogilvie was working in a school with ‘apparent systematic leadership problems’ and taking on more responsility than she was capable of’.
She cannot take a job with line management responsibilities for three years and must complete a mentoring or management course.
Rotherham Council said she was dismissed in 2009.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
