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Teachers demand blacklist of pupils making false allegations

Richard Garner
Thursday 20 March 2008 01:00 GMT
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A blacklist of pupils who have made malicious allegations of sexual abuse or assault against teachers should be compiled and made available to any school to which the pupil subsequently moves, union leaders have demanded.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, holding its annual conference in Torquay, also said children over 10 – the age of criminal responsibility – should be prosecuted for perverting justice if they were found to be lying.

The union said the number of allegations against teachers was growing. One lawyer said that she was dealing with several dozen a year – 75 per cent of which proved groundless.

Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the ATL, said: "We're not saying that, if they've made one allegation which proved not to be supported, they should be routinely disbelieved.

"However, we do believe that teachers or a new school should be aware of what's happened because teachers may want to be more careful of any contact with that child.

"Our experience is that a lot of the allegations prove to be unfounded."

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