Teachers walk out in protest at 'bullying' headteacher

Teachers strike More than 70 teachers have staged a walk-out at a school in Lancashire in a one-day protest over their 'bullying' headteacher.

Staff at Darwen Vale High School claim the headmistress, Hilary Torpey, 'undermined' teachers by being 'soft' on unruly pupils, but shouting at staff - on occasion reducing some to tears.

Union chiefs backed up the allegations, agreeing that some kids had pushed, shoved and verbally abused teachers, whilst management took a softly-softly approach to their behaviour, returning confiscated mobile phones and 'undermining' teachers attempts to regain order in classrooms.

A spokesman for the National Union of Teachers said: 'Our members have alleged Mrs Torpey is a bully. Until management put in place behaviour policy that's applied consistently, we won't be coming to settlement.'

The local council said the teacher's strike action was 'disappointing'
Harry Devonport, director of education at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council told reporters:

'The council is working hard to bring the school leadership together with unions to clarify what needs to be done.'

Mrs Torpey was said to be 'aware' of the bullying allegations but was not prepared to comment.

What do you think?
Were the staff right to walk out?

More education stories on Parentdish:

Pupils stage walk-out after school launches hand-holding ban

Share this article

Tags: bullying, bullying in the workplace, darwin vale high school, head, hilary torpey, national union of teachers, teachers, teachers strike

Add a Comment

Sign in »

1 Comment

Filter by:

trevorcsr

Of course they should have walked out no-one should go to work and be bullied. I would never do a teachers job because if a kid spoke to me like that I would smack their teeth out. Kids are at school about 1000 hours a year and under parent discipline the other 7760 hours so who should take responsibility? Children are what they hear and listening to parents in the playground you can see why some kids are like it. All the parents appear to be interested in is texting on their phones or where their next fix or drink is coming from. It is rare to see a parent get down to a childs level and listen to them. I don't think some of the parents know any words over 4 letters either. The frightening thing is these kids will become parents one day as well - probably at 15 years old. God help us all!!!!

May 04 2011 at 3:18 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply