What the BBC’s sacking of Scott Mills can teach all teachers

One of the BBC’s top radio presenters Scott Mills was sacked by the BBC this week from his £355,000 a year contract for historic allegations of serious sexual offences against a teenage boy, that were eventually dropped by police due to lack of evidence.

Comment from readers in national newspapers have ranged from “how stupid of the BBC to employ him knowing that…” to “how unfair of the BBC to sack someone for historic unsubstantiated allegations” to “he’s innocent until proven guilty.”

Photo credit - Andrew Crowley in The Daily Telegraph

There’s a lesson for teachers in this.

First of all, a legal one. Mills was not charged with any offence because of a lack of evidence. In the eyes of the law, he’s technically ‘innocent’ in that, had his case been brought to trial, the likelihood is the evidence would have been too weak to convict him before jury therefore, he would have been acquitted.

Secondly, an ethical and moral lesson. Any employer is justified to make a professional judgment about whether a potential employee is a fit, suitable and appropriate representative of the organisation, especially one very sensitive about its public reputation (like the BBC) or one which puts its employees in critical roles of responsibility and public trust (like schools do with teachers).

A fair-minded and tolerant person may well say, “these allegations are historic, unsubstantiated and unproven and in a liberal democracy like ours, everyone is innocent until proven guilty… etc”. This is a legal judgment of the issue.

However, it would not be unfair nor indeed irresponsible - for a headteacher or a chair of governors for example - to deem the risk too great to employ a teacher even with unproven allegations of sexual assault against a teenager, which were substantive enough for the police to take over a year to drop the charges. This is an ethical and moral judgment of the issue which goes on to inform a professional judgment.

When all kinds of issues arise in schools and classrooms, using legal, ethical and moral distinctions can help teachers sort out many problems – even before they get to crisis point.

Alan Newland writes and lectures to teacher-trainees at universities and SCITTs about the legal, ethical and moral dimensions of entering the teaching profession. His book ‘Becoming a Teacher’ is listed on Amazon globally.