Michael Gove Warned about Megan Stammers' School Several Months Ago
By Victoria Ward
A child protection campaigner contacted Michael Gove's office to raise "serious concerns" about the school of teenager Megan Stammers several months ago, it has emerged. A child protection campaigner contacted Michael Gove's office to raise "serious concerns" about the school of teenager Megan Stammers several months ago, it has emerged. Lucy Duckworth said she wrote to the education secretary, warning that she feared the Bishop Bell School's child protection policies were "inadequate". The former consultant for the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the Eastbourne school was "extremely hostile" when she wrote several times asking to see its child protection policy and claimed that staff refused to send her a copy. She told the BBC: "I've written to (the school) and several other officials including Michael Gove, and Stephen Lloyd MP, several times since February this year and stated their child protection policies have been inadequate throughout this time." The school refuted the claims, insisting that it had a "robust" safeguarding policy in place. Terry Boatwright, the head teacher, said: "Bishop Bell School ... takes safeguarding very seriously and the effectiveness of its safeguarding procedures is rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted." Mr Lloyd, Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon, also defended the school, saying: "I know Bishop Bell well and I'm confident that their procedures have been exemplary." But the scandal involving Stammers and Jeremy Forrest, her maths teacher, is the third in as many years for the school. In February 2009, Robert Healy, a teacher aged 27 at the time, was jailed for seven years after admitting grooming two pupils aged 15 and 16 and having sexual intercourse with them. Lewes Crown Court heard that Healy groomed both girls on the social networking site Bebo and received informal warnings from staff at the school about his inappropriate relationship with them. East Sussex county council said he had been suspended as soon as the allegations had come to light, but the parent of one 12 – year – old said at the time that she only learnt of Healy's arrest when she read about the court case in the local newspaper. Earlier this year it also emerged that a retired priest had been allowed to remain a governor at the school for more than a year after child sex allegations against him came to light. Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, was charged in June with 38 sexual offences against children and young teenagers dating back to the 1960s and 1970s. The priest had been allowed to remain on the school's board of governors despite being suspended by the Church of England when the allegations first came to light last year. Mrs Stammers also called on the French media to give more prominence to the story. She said: "I don't know why it's not in the papers in France — it's not out there."
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