Gross misconduct? Being dismissed? HELP!

londonlydia

Blimey, lets hope some of the people on here are never on a jury!

I'm amazed by the amount of gap filling in this thread, and people who are jumping on the fact that they feel the OP is guilty. Maybe he is, but lets give him the credit that he may be teeling the truth and give advice based on that? Just think, if he is telling the truth then this would be a very stressful situation!

I can tell you now, having many, many friends that are teachers, that kids get talked about all the time out of work. Both good and bad. People may be shocked to hear that, but in my experience that's because for teachers it's a very thought consuming profession and its hard to switch off. Plus, its very hard not to talk about your job, I cant talk about mine and would have worst punishments if I did, but it's always hard to do if your thoughts are on your work. I'm not condoning it, I'm just saying it's incredibly common, particularly when teachers meet each other.

As for the drink throwing, whilst its not acceptable, it's a bit weak when you compare it to being hit or something. We dont know what occured to make it happen, but I'm sure everyone of us have sensitive buttons that when pressed we dont act like we want to. I don't like swearing for instance, but I did have a string of unmentionables leave my mouth to a BNP stand in my area recently.

Anyway, what I'm interested to know is why this matter got escalated. Is it that the group are trying to get their own back about the drink throwing, and know that talking about students can get the OH sacked? To be fair, groups of women can be very catty and vindictive!

Can you remember specifically what was said for you to pour the drink? You could potentially place a counter-grievance against them for that. If people are lying, but suddenly see their actions are getting themselves in trouble (especially just for backing up a mate), you will be amazed at how quickly they withdraw their statement....

zzzLazyDaisy

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

Presumably the employer - being a school - is paid for by the taxpayer...would be my take on it.

So on that basis, anyone employed in the public sector - schools, hospitals, courts, police, prisons, etc etc should be denied their basic employment rights because their wages are paid by the tax payer?

Funky_Bold_Ribena

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

So on that basis, anyone employed in the public sector - schools, hospitals, courts, police, prisons, etc etc should be denied their basic employment rights because their wages are paid by the tax payer?

I don't agree - I just think that's the point the poster was trying to make.

zzzLazyDaisy

londonlydia wrote: »

Can you remember specifically what was said for you to pour the drink? You could potentially place a counter-grievance against them for that. If people are lying, but suddenly see their actions are getting themselves in trouble (especially just for backing up a mate), you will be amazed at how quickly they withdraw their statement....

OP has said that the disciplinary is not about the drink pouring incident (though I agree that may well be what prompted the people to report her).

I can't see how she could lodge a grievance against them though as they are employed by a different school, and to be honest, even if she had a valid complaint against them at the time things have gone too far for her to make a complaint against them now as it would just look like she was trying to deflect attention away from herself (in my view).