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Quote of the Day
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. - Aesop
Dundee City Council unable to accept defeat gracefully
SORE LOSERS
It is understood the council have taken high-level legal advice and on the advice of QCs has decided to appeal. Asked on what grounds the council was appealing, the spokesman refused to expand on the statement.
After the tribunal judgment was published, The Courier made a freedom of information request asking what the cost would be to the city council in terms of staff hours and money from September 2007 to the conclusion of the tribunal in June this year.
The council's answer was: ''This information is not recorded.'' - How convenient!
Read the full story in The Courier ------------ NB: The costs involved in hiring a QC is £400+ per hour The cost to Dundee taxpayers would be astronomical. It would be less costly to offer a settlement to Linda Ross after the unaminous decision reached by the employment tribunal in her unfair dismissal case. It appears that Deputy Lord Provost Cllr Ian Borthwick's earlier call for an investigation has been ignored. As the saying goes: Pride comes before a fall.
The damning findings of the tribunal report were revealed in Saturday's Courier. 'Quite shocking' — call for council to face Linda Ross case investigationThe city's longest-serving councillor has demanded a full investigation into Dundee City Council's treatment of former deputy head teacher Linda Ross.
Ian Borthwick, who has served the city as an elected member for 50 years, says he found the employment tribunal report which upheld the former deputy head teacher's claim for unfair dismissal "quite shocking". The damning contents of the report were exclusively revealed in Saturday's Courier. Mr Borthwick, who was part of a three-man inquiry team investigating allegations made by Mrs Ross of problems with discipline and security at Sidlaw View Primary School in 2007, said the council had fallen "far short" of the standards expected of it. He added he found it "unacceptable" the authority's HR manager ignored advice from the council's own legal department and said the behaviour of certain individuals had "cast a bad reflection on the city". He also demanded that employees should be confident the "utmost fairness" would be shown to them during any disciplinary matters. The tribunal judgment — seen by The Courier on Friday ahead of it being made available to the public on Monday — severely criticises the city council, former education director Anne Wilson, HR manager Janet Robertson and primary education manager Ian Rae. Lord Provost John Letford is also highlighted by the three-man tribunal panel as having been accused by Mrs Ross of behaving as if he was "on a jolly" while chairing her appeal hearing. The tribunal rules the council failed to comply with its own procedures and "failed to comply with the basic requirements of natural justice" in its treatment of Mrs Ross, who was suspended from her position as deputy head teacher at Longhaugh Primary School following allegations she assaulted a pupil. The judgment also describes Anne Wilson as not a "reliable witness" and states the HR department had ignored "correct legal advice". The tribunal ruled Mrs Ross had been unfairly dismissed by the city council and raised any compensatory award to her by 25% to reflect the council's failure to comply with its own procedures. Mr Borthwick says there needs to be a full investigation. He said: "I think the report and its conclusions are quite shocking and there should be a full inquiry. We as a council were weighed in the balance and found to be wanting. "According to the report we fell far short of the standards that should be expected. We are entitled to a full explanation of how this situation arose and what steps are being taken to make sure it won't happen again. "There are well established procedures and these must be adhered to in the future. At all times absolute fairness must be applied in any future proceedings and disciplinary matters involving staff."
EXCLUSIVE
Primary teachers are twice as likely to be attacked in school as their secondary counterparts. In one shocking case we uncovered, a four-year-old threw a brick at a teacher.
Sacked Dundee teacher Linda Ross wins battle to clear her name
The judgement of the Employment Tribunal was unanimous in finding that sacked depute head teacher Linda Ross was unfairly dismissed by Dundee City Council.
Read the full story at STV News. also front page of 'The Courier'
Sacked teacher tells of 'Kangaroo Court'
Giving evidence at an employment tribunal into her claim for unfair dismissal, Mrs Ross said the city council’s then education director Anne Wilson had been “judge, jury, and executioner.”
She added, how can she be impartial when she was making the allegations, chairing the meeting and making the decision?”
(Read the full story further down the page).
Source: The Courier
Tribunal hears of “vendetta” against council
Vic Ross said he believed disciplinary action against his wife had been ”payback” for him complaining about violence at the school where she previously worked. After being served with a court order preventing him from contacting the head teacher of her new school, he decided ”enough’s enough—I have got to fight back somehow.” He told the tribunal, “You have got to stand up for your next of kin. I knew it was going to be David against Goliath but I had to have a go.” Mrs Ross, of Forfar, was sacked for gross misconduct from her post as deputy head teacher at Longhaugh Primary, Dundee, in 2008. She used to work at Sidlaw View Primary, but was given a final written warning and transferred in the wake of an email her husband sent to The Courier alleging frequent violence at the school. Recalling events at Sidlaw View, Mr Ross said he had been told by staff and parents about knives being carried into the school and a riot involving parents throwing chairs. Mrs Ross’s solicitor John Muir asked if he had spoken out with his wife’s consent. He replied, “She didn’t have any say in the matter. I was going to do it come hell or high water.” Disciplinary proceedings followed for Mrs Ross and a council-commissioned independent inquiry found the claims of violence at Sidlaw View had been exaggerated. Mr Ross said that, with his wife’s transfer to Longhaugh, “We just wanted to get back to normal and lead our lives peacefully again.” He later became aware that Mrs Ross had been bitten by a pupil and there had been “a bit of aggro” from the boy’s parents, but he did not get involved as that would complicate matters.
Husband says there was
nothing to hide
AN INQUIRY was then carried out into a claim that Mrs Ross had assaulted the boy. She was told at a meeting with head teacher Gerard Munro the outcome of this was that she would be given advice, guidance and support, which caused her to come home upset. Without her knowledge, Mr Ross had later telephoned Mr Munro several times to try to find out what was going on. A few days later sheriff officers arrived at the couple’s home to serve him with an interim interdict ordering him not to contact Mr Munro. Mr Ross said, “Within 30 minutes the BBC telephoned me. “They already new about the interdict and asked me for my comments. I assumed there must have been a press release from the council.” On his decision to speak to the media, he said “I am my own man. I do what I want to do. Wild horses couldn’t stop me. “It was a personal vendetta by then. They had plastered my name over the six o’clock news with an interdict over a phone call.” He denied having his wife’s authority or blessing to make statements to the press, or that she had done anything explicitly or implicitly to encourage him. He said his statements were “my way of coping with it.” On the council’s actions against his wife, he said, "I felt it was payback for Sidlaw View because I had highlighted the violence in Dundee schools.” Various allegations were made against Mrs Ross by the council over the summer and Mr Muir suggested he must have known that his public comments were causing problems for her employment. “What was there to hide? She’s a teacher, she’s not working for MI5,” Mr Ross said. Mr Muir continued, “To be blunt, why not keep your trap shut?" Mr Ross replied, “I didn’t see what there was to hide.” In July he set up a website called lindaross.co.uk using his wife’s credit card to buy the domain name. He told the tribunal, “It was launched by me, solely by me. Linda had nothing to do with it. It was a publicity campaign.” One of the charges against Mrs Ross was that she was involved with a website that had links to pornography. Mr Ross said he had an arrangement to sell copies of an e-book by an American teacher on school discipline, taking a cut of the sales. The computer source code for this included a video, but this “pointed to clean, educational sites, none of this pointed to any violence or sexual sites of any kind.” Mr Muir asked him to look at photocopies of pages on video sharing website You Tube which formed part of the council’s case against his wife. Mr Ross said this was an external site which had nothing to do with lindaross.co.uk. The tribunal heard the completion of Mrs Ross’s cross-examination by council’s solicitor Madge Geddes, who referred her to a press article following her sacking which she was quoted as saying she was now able to speak for herself—the implication being her husband had been speaking on her behalf. Mrs Ross said, “It was foolish of me to do that. I apologise for that. In retrospect I should not have done it.”
Vic Ross (Webmaster and Owner of the Websites)
Council were “scrutinising”
lingerie site
Vic Ross said he had noticed an increase in the number of visitors to the site and wanted to know what was going on. He said, “I was shocked to see that Dundee City Council were the main visitors to the site. “The software told me they were going through lingerie. I was suspicious—I did not think it was employees, I thought it was someone scrutinising the website.” His wife is claiming unfair dismissal from her post as deputy head of Longhaugh Primary in 2008. Among the charges the council brought against her were running a business in her spare time without permission and having website links to inappropriate material. Mr Ross said one of his websites sold a variety of products including beauty products, DVDs, football items, watches and lingerie. The list included clothing under the brand Li’l Miss Naughty and Mr Ross said, ”A lot of this stuff is considered to be fancy dress costumes.” Mr Ross referred to photocopies of items for sale on the website which were lodged as productions for the tribunal, including a DVD entitled Anne Nicole Smith Exposed, featuring the late playboy model. He said, “Somebody has obviously gone through this with a fine tooth comb looking for dirt. The company who supply this are a reputable company.” John Muir, his wife’s solicitor, asked if she had ever had anything to do with the websites Mr Ross ran. The witness replied, “Not at all. She had nothing to do with the websites in any way whatsoever.” Mr Ross added that he had never been communicated with directly by the council. Cross-examined by council solicitor Madge Geddes, he was asked about a series of phone calls he made to Longhaugh head teacher Gerard Munro on the day his wife had been told the outcome of an inquiry into a claim she had assaulted a pupil. He saw she was upset, he said, and added, “It concerned me and I felt I should get to the bottom of it. It may be looked upon as meddling but that’s me.” Mr Ross said that during the first call the head teacher had hung up as soon as he found out who had phoned him. He went on, “I was Mr Nice Guy to start with but later on I had to start tightening some screws.” Ms Geddes listed various comments he had made during the calls, including “What the hell is going on at that school,” “I have got plenty on you,” I will take this to the top,” “You have framed my wife,” “It’s not a good idea to hang up on me my friend,” and “I am from Glasgow too.” Did he accept that he had acted in a threatening and intimidating way to Mr Munro, she asked. Mr Ross replied, “Not at all.” Two days after the calls to Mr Munro, an interim interdict was served on Mr Ross preventing him from contacting the head teacher again.
Mr Ross was the final witness at the tribunal. The three-man panel will issue a judgement at a later date.
Questionable tactics behind GTCS hearing by Lawrence Harvey (The Insider)
THE husband of Linda Ross launched a website and because he named it after his wife the GTCS made the appalling decision to strike her off the register several years after she had officially retired from teaching and taken her pension. The GTCS found her guilty of placing material on a website her husband fully admits to owning and operating. It is also widely known that Mrs Ross had no intention of returning to teaching. This alone is surely worthy of further investigation and questions their tactics. Allegations Mrs Ross's solicitor John Muir has rightly questioned whether this hearing should have taken place in the midst of an ongoing employment tribunal. He told TESS he had been trying to persuade the GTCS to postpone its hearing pending the outcome of the tribunal, as the charges were identical to four of the allegations that led to her dismissal and all the evidence had been gathered by Dundee City Council. “If Mrs Ross had lost the tribunal, how could she persuade the GTCS to find otherwise and what would be the point in incurring the legal expense?” Mr Muir said. He said his client had formally retired from teaching. Mrs Ross is currently fighting for unfair dismissal and has vowed to clear her name. Her husband Vic Ross has always claimed his wife had no involvement with the website in question. This was just one of nine websites he operated. Fictitious He said: "As webmaster and administrator of the website I never on any occasion received a single complaint from the council or anyone else regarding offensive material. The site attracted thousands of visitors and I received a large amount of letters on a daily basis via the Guestbook with no complaints referring to YouTube videos allegedly showing sexual content. That's because there weren't any, it is completely fictitious. I have consulted a professional internet developer to prove beyond doubt that these allegations have no substance. The original source code for the website will prove who is right". He confirmed the website in question was launched after the council released a press statement believed to be in breach of their human rights. He used the website as a means of fighting back.
Famous Quotes The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth. - Edith Sitwell Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. - Mark Twain
The GTCS Ruling (Statement from Linda Ross) "I have been retired from teaching for several years so the GTCS ruling to remove my name from the teaching register is totally ineffectual. I decided not to return to teaching after I applied for my pension. This is now history and I must concentrate on clearing my name at the employment tribunal."
SOURCE: The Evening Telegraph 16/02/2011
Sacked teacher tells of ‘trumped up charges’
Sacked Dundee teacher Linda Ross told an employment tribunal she had been facing “trumped up charges with little way of defending myself”. She was giving evidence at a hearing into her claim of unfair dismissal by the city council in 2008 from her post as deputy head of Longhaugh Primary. Mrs Ross (59), Strangs Ley, Forfar, had been transferred there after being given a final written warning in relation to claims made public by her husband Vic about violence at her previous school, Sidlaw View Primary. The tribunal heard Mrs Ross had been investigated over a complaint by parents of a child at Longhaugh that she had assaulted the child. The result of this was inconclusive and she admitted being angry at the way the case was being handled. A few days after a meeting with head teacher Gerard Munro in June 2008 she was suspended and her husband — who had phoned Mr Munro — was served with an interim interdict banning him form further contact. The council had put out a press release saying it had taken these steps. Mrs Ross said, “I have never heard of an employer putting out a press release about an employee. To have Vic and me on the news — what benefit was that for the people of Dundee to know that Vic had been served with an interim interdict and I was suspended? “It made my husband out to be a thug and me out to be a troublemaker.” Mrs Ross then received a letter from the council calling her to an investigatory meeting, at which she said she was “bombarded with questions — it was quite a shambles”. She now understood she should have been given a copy of the notes during the meeting to sign, confirming it was an accurate account. However, this had not happened and today at the tribunal was the first time she had seen the notes. Referring to the disciplinary charges later laid against her, Mrs Ross said, “One of the allegations was that I misled the investigatory meeting. That was one allegation I could not refute because I had no copy (of the notes). That was one allegation they could make stick.” She was also charged with passing on details of a confidential letter relating to the family’s complaint about her. Mrs Ross denied ever being told this was confidential and added that “umpteen” complaints had been made by this family. Mrs Ross was also said to have breached confidentiality by passing information about the inquiry into the alleged assault to her husband. She said, “This was speculation by the council. They were assuming that was what I had done. How do I refute this allegation?” Notice A disciplinary hearing was scheduled for June 26 — but Mrs Ross had less than the normal ten days’ notice and her EIS union representative Eric Baillie told the council this was unsustainable. Mrs Ross told the tribunal, “It didn’t surprise me that the council was trying to get rid of me quickly before the holidays. “It was the same old chestnut as at Sidlaw View. They were trumped up charges with little way of defending myself. The city council had never listened to my views, or even documents that were handed in — they were just not bothered.” Mrs Ross went off sick with work-related stress and the disciplinary hearing was rearranged to take place after the summer holidays on August 26. However, Mrs Ross remained signed off sick by her GP. She told the tribunal her condition at the time was “pretty bad”. The tribunal had earlier heard of the “absolute nightmare” Linda Ross went through as she faced two rounds of disciplinary proceedings before losing her job. Questioned by her solicitor John Muir, she told the tribunal how her troubles began. She said, “I knew when I was appointed deputy head at Sidlaw View that it was a difficult school, but the things I saw going on totally shocked me.” Mrs Ross spoke about parents wandering at will through the school and a lack of procedures to deal with troubled children. Mr Muir took her through the charges she had faced in her first disciplinary case, including making allegations about the school outwith council procedures. She said, “I had no part in any of this.” Mrs Ross added, “My husband wrote an anonymous email to a newspaper stating a riot had taken place. I had absolutely no idea this was going on. I went into school the next morning and I was totally shocked by the headlines.” Mrs Ross denied having any prior knowledge of the email or encouraging her husband to send it. She explained that Mr Ross had visited the school on more than one occasion and was concerned about her welfare. She added that the council had refused to believe her denials, believing Mr Ross could not have done it without information from her. She also denied allegations of distributing copies of an email to staff and of refusing to co-operate with a senior education department official. The case ended with Mrs Ross being given a final written warning She told the tribunal, “I knew I had not done anything, I was being used as a way of getting at my husband. “It was a nightmare, an absolute nightmare.” Speaking about her decision to accept the written warning , she said, “ This was all new to me. I was suddenly in this maelstrom of nonsense and allegations and I just wanted to get back to work.” Anne Wilson, the director of education at the time, had stressed to her the need for confidentiality. Her husband then sent a letter to another newspaper, which Mrs Ross said was “a rather foolish thing to do”. She was then transferred to Longhaugh as deputy head, where she learned about family M. There was an incident involving a child, who had bitten her finger after being told not to skip ahead in a lunch queue. She submitted a violence report, as was standard procedure, but no action was taken against the child. Mrs Ross explained that subsequently, “I tried to distance myself from the family.” However, a complaint was raised against her after two further incidents involving family M. “I was not unduly worried about it because I knew I had not done anything and I had witnesses who could back me up,” Mrs Ross said. Outcome She added that at one point head teacher Gerard Munro told her that everything would be all right. At a meeting on June 3, she was told the outcome of the inquiry. One allegation had been found unsubstantiated, but there was conflicting evidence from staff about the second, in which she was said to have grabbed a pupil by the arm and face. She had held the child’s hand as she tried to coax the child out from under a table, she explained. At the meeting she had been told she would be given “advice, guidance and support” about how to deal with such situations in the future. Mrs Ross said she was “flabbergasted” by this, and a lack of a firm conclusion to the investigation. She felt this was a sanction against her, explaining, “This wishy-washy bit in the middle — to me it felt as if I was guilty. “To me my good name is important. To be accused of assaulting a child is the worst thing I could be accused of.” The tribunal continues.
Source: The Courier, February 17, 2011
Sacked teacher tells of 'kangaroo court'
A “KANGAROO COURT” sacked Dundee teacher Linda Ross, she claimed yesterday. Giving evidence at an employment tribunal into her claim for unfair dismissal, Mrs Ross said the city council’s then education director Anne Wilson had been “judge, jury, and executioner.” She added, how can she be impartial when she was making the allegations, chairing the meeting and making the decision?” Mrs Ross (59), Strangs Ley, Forfar, was dismissed in 2008 from her post as deputy head teacher of Longhaugh Primary. She had been transferred there after being given a final written warning in relation to claims made public by her husband Vic about violence at her previous school, Sidlaw View Primary. During her second day of evidence, Mrs Ross told the tribunal she had been facing “trumped up charges with little way of defending myself.” She faced 15 allegations, all of which a disciplinary hearing she did not attend found proved. These included claims about supposedly salacious material—including a naughty schoolgirl outfit—being available on or through websites she ran. Mrs Ross insisted that her husband owned and ran the websites and the unacceptable material—including videos on YouTube—were nothing to do with his business venture. She said her husband had been processing orders for what was an online equivalent of a mail order catalogue, with a constantly changing stock of 10,000 items. The schoolgirl outfit was an adult fancy dress costume. Asked by her solicitor of being accused of selling inappropriate goods, she replied “It just got completely out of control. They were throwing everything they could at me. “The allegations were so absurd, unbelievable.” Mr Ross wrote to the council to confirm he was the owner of the websites, but his wife said she believed the council had convinced itself that she was the owner. The tribunal heard Mrs Ross had been investigated over a complaint by parents of a child at Longhaugh that she had assaulted him. The result of this was inconclusive and she admitted being angry at the way the case was handled. Days after a meeting with head teacher Gerard Munro in June 2008 she was suspended and her husband, who called Mr Munro, was served with an interim interdict banning him from contact. The council put out a press release saying it had taken these steps. Mrs Ross said, “I have never heard of an employer putting out a press release about an employee. Press release ‘infringed human rights’ Between the investigatory meeting and the disciplinary hearing, the council put out anther press release confirming the process was ongoing and Mrs Ross had been cleared to attend by a doctor. “That was such an infringement of my human rights. It’s a disgrace,” Mrs Ross said. The disciplinary hearing went ahead in her absence and she was dismissed, but decided to appeal. Asked why she did, Mrs Ross replied, “This was a job I loved and did not want to walk away from. “This would be in front of councillors—it was out of the education department’s hands and I had a chance of a fair hearing.” The tribunal has been adjourned until May 31. Mrs Ross was to appear before the General teaching Council of Scotland next week, but her solicitor said this hearing would be postponed until after the conclusion of the tribunal. A kangaroo court or kangaroo trial is a colloquial term for a sham legal proceeding or court. The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or by allowing no defense at all. A kangaroo court's proceedings deny due process rights in the name of expediency. Such rights include the right to summon witnesses, the right of cross-examination, the right not to incriminate oneself, the right not to be tried on secret evidence, the right to control one's own defense, the right to exclude evidence that is improperly obtained, irrelevant or inherently inadmissible, e.g., hearsay, the right to exclude judges or jurors on the grounds of partiality or conflict of interest, and the right of appeal.
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Ex-teacher tells of ‘kangaroo court’
Mr Ross said: "I have recently consulted independent experts in website technology. They have confirmed that there were no links of any kind containing offensive material from the website in question. What does that tell you?
The council also accused my wife of running three websites, including a furniture store. It is quite absurd, to say the least".
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