In1996 I
qualified as a teacher of English after five years of study to better my
chances of a career. Soon after I began working and by September, had got
myself a full time, permanent job at a school. At the same time, my wife
and I took on adoption placement two children, James and Emily whom we
adopted legally in 1998. They were three and four at the time.
In the
August of that year we had what is called a ‘breakdown’ where we asked the
adoptions team [all social workers] to step in. They refused [against our
wishes] and we suffered for the next seven years at the hands and antics
of a child with a severe dysfunctional attachment disorder who cannot help
her actions and incompetent social workers who refuse to believe such a
thing exists. On several occasions, we asked for help and got abuse from
social worker staff and adoptions team alike. They were extremely
unprofessional throughout.
By 2004,
due to an increasingly disruptive and challenging child in the shape of
our adopted daughter, our marriage was on the rocks. Neither of us could
take the stress she caused any longer and so, my wife left home, so we
asked for our daughter to be put in care. Initially, we were refused once
again by the Social Services. If they thought she was in danger, surely
they would have taken her, but no.
I ‘pushed’
and became angry with them so they agreed. A few days after she went,
allegations regarding common assault were made in language that she simply
could not have used. She was too young to verbalise words as those we were
told she had said. The police investigated and no further action was
taken, both on me or my wife. We were left to think it was all over but
there was more to come, nine months later.
All this
time, we had our son at home with us and were being threatened to have him
taken away from us, even though we could not see why such action should be
needed. I refused to work with the social worker in question because she
had developed an unhealthy interest in our son, in my opinion, so the SS
talked to my wife on her own and said if she left me, she could become the
children’s carer/guardian. An ultimatum or what? She told them that this
ultimatum was unacceptable and they left, forcing us to relinquish our
son, who wanted to stay with us in the family home.
We were
left to stew for nine months by the SS and the police. Then we were told
our daughter had made further allegations relating solely to me. Nine
months! Again, the police forced me to go to the cells to find that the
girl had not even spoken to any police officer or social worker about her
comments. A flippant comment to a foster carer led to the police frog
marching me into the cells.
My
solicitor was not impressed and told them so. He instructed me to give a
short statement denying the claims and that is what I did. I then asked to
leave. The police were not impressed but no further action was taken. We
even had to get the solicitor involved to get the police to write a letter
to us saying no further action would be taken. Then we tried to get on
with our lives.
By 2005,
after moving house in the April, I left my job at the school and gave
notice for Christmas. I had been informed through a check, that my CRB
would be clear. After I left, I began teaching for an agency and all was
going well until I received my CRB form back.
The CRB
disclosure contained dates, facts and opinions that were false, so I
challenged through the CRB website. I then received a call from my
teaching agency stating my time at my new school was over as the CRB had
demanded they cannot continue my employ whilst I had a complaint in
against the CRB. I was told at 11.45am that I had to be out of the school
by noon. Shortly after, I landed another job nearby in another school to
start in January 2006. This was two days before the Christmas break. It
had taken the CRB since August to get the thing back to me.
Only when I
complained whilst waiting and mentioned the fact that if it was Ian
Huntley, it would be quicker did the CRB jump into action. The comments on
the CRB were placed there by the social worker via the police and were
completely false and in my opinion, are a scurrilous attempt to kill my
career by the Police and more likely, the SS.
By now the
school who have offered me a job for the summer state that they have to
hold a strategy meeting within the LEA. A decision is not made in full
because the facts that have come back from the SS, my school and the
Police have ‘too many inconsistencies’ in them. I am told that I will not
now start on the 9th January as expected, but that another strategy
meeting has to take place on the 10th. If they say yes, I start soon
after, regardless of the comments on the CRB. If they say no, my career is
over. I take the files and work and begin to prepare for a January start,
at the request of the Headteacher who views this whole thong as a ‘moral
injustice’ that needs to be resolved.
A few days
later, I visit my union rep and he informs me that he will do what he can
regards helping me clear my CRB of what is unnecessary information. I am
told by this man that the CRB telling the agency to end my time at
Garforth is ‘tantamount to a judgment on their part [CRB]’ and as such, is
not the correct or legal path to take.
I also send
emails to each political party leader, asking for help and to the CRB,
retracting my complaint in the vain hope I will still be able to work for
the agency in the New Year, who having seen the CRB, still carried on
employing me.
I also
visit my old school where I had worked for eight years and talk of
covering a teacher from January is discussed with me but no action taken
as yet. The day after, I get a call from the Headteacher who tells me the
LEA have forced him to say no to my return to the school and they gave an
excuse not to employ me, but I wonder where the pressure is coming from.
The Head says a good lawyer may be an option as he describes the whole
thing as a ‘witch hunt’ and does not appreciate being constantly
misinterpreted by the local SS at every turn. Not content with twisting
our words, the SS are now twisting his words as well. By this time, I am
unemployed even though two Headteachers want to offer me work, as well as
a teaching agency.
I also
email my MP and ask for help there. After the schools have finished, I am
asked to put this file into writing and send it to him. I begin to think
that there may be a light on the horizon, but 2006 begins and I descend
into the pit of despair. I begin at my new school a week later than
planned after being told the strategy meeting passed me as fit to work in
any school in the LEA but am so emotionally upset by the CRB problems that
I am unable to do the work and have to resign on grounds of ill health
brought on by mental anxiety. Teaching at that time, is not something I
can do and rather than burden the borough with the cost of me, plus the
teacher I am covering plus the teacher who would have to cover me, I
resign and start work for an employment agency, out of teaching and
earning significantly less.
I then meet
with my MP to discuss the case of my son and the CRB. The MP is very
uneasy about getting involved [against party line] and tells me to ‘drop
it and move on’ or ‘accept it and carry on teaching.’ How insensitive can
a person be? If only it was that simple.
By February
of this year, we have not seen our son for nearly two years. The pain is
staggeringly intense and my career is ruined by the SS. I find I cannot do
the work I am good at and love because of the lies told by the SS, who
must have primed our daughter to cook up such a tissue of lies. I have
suffered a nervous breakdown and as a result, have to stop work again due
to ill health and sign on the dole. I try for work again but there is
nothing coming. Plenty of job applications, and only a few interviews, but
I am clearly too qualified which frightens a lot of employers off.
On the last
day of February, I phone a teaching agency that have seen my CRB and ask
them to place me, being emotionally ready to teach again. They say they
cannot employ me any further. I ask for this in writing, so that I can use
it to bring litigation against the Adoption agency, the SS and the Police.
It is my intention to sue them for lost earnings caused by the inclusion
of the statement on the CRB disclosure. As each year, when I finished, I
was earning Ł29,137.00; it is my intention to sue for that amount for each
of the years I have left until retirement. I intend to sue each one for
the same amount. I am still unemployed, on the books with the agency but
unable to work.
The thing
that bugs me the most though is that between the CRB, the Police and the
SS, incompetence seems to reign like it has never done before. We have a
38 page report from Cafcass for example, appointed on my son’s behalf when
proceedings were taken up, that state that the professionals in this case
‘were at fault’ right from the beginning. They talked with him, stated
that he should stay with us and then, seven days later, stated in court
that he should leave the family home. No proof was offered, just lies by
bigoted, uncaring, insensitive harridans who are intent upon destroying
children’s lives. On their head be it, for their judgment will come.
As such, we
find ourselves in a situation where we have a 12 year old adopted daughter
in care who wants to live in care and a 13 year old son who has never
wanted to be away from us, but who was ripped from our side by uncaring,
insensitive social workers, hell bent on destroying a professional teacher
and a set of successful parents. Everyone used to comment on what a
wonderful job we were doing as parents before all this happened.
I took a
stand against the actions of the SS [and I do use that term correctly] by
refusing to work with the social worker in question who I believe wanted
to section the both of us. As a result, we lost our son and God knows what
he has been told about us by these people. We know for a fact that he has
been told we have ‘rejected’ him when in actual fact, this is not the
case.
We love him
dearly and would have him back in a flash, but we are denied that chance,
denied access to him by the SS, denied even the chance to get a letter
from his foster carers once a year to tell us how he is going. We had to
do that for several years, and were happy to do so, for both his birth
parents, and one of them is a convicted schedule 1 offender!
What we get
instead is absolutely nothing, but a heart that has been torn apart and
refuses to mend. Tell me, how do you mend a broken heart?
All we want
is justice for our son. Consistently, throughout this torturous time, he
has not been listened to. His needs have come last. The SS have told lie
upon lie to get him into care and our daughter has assisted in that
process. He asked her why she was lying about us and her reply was ‘so
that I could get you into care as well.’ And she was ten years old when
she said that. We heard it from our son himself.
If ever we
see him again, and we fear that by the time he is sixteen he will have
been brainwashed against us, we have no intention of letting him go unless
he wants it. Our love for him continues, undaunted, flaming like a torch
that refuses to go out. In time, we shall see justice for him and then,
when that time comes, the SS and their evil ways will be shown up in the
public domain.
J.S
April 2006
