A supply science teacher who secretly filmed unruly pupils for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary was found guilty of professional misconduct yesterday and suspended from teaching for a year.
Alex Dolan recorded the footage covertly at four schools in London and Leeds in 2005, exposing apparent attempts by the school to dupe Ofsted inspectors. A General Teaching Council panel found her guilty of taking advantage of pupils, breaching their trust – and that of colleagues – and abusing her position.
Dolan was praised at a hearing of the panel last week for showing integrity, and acting as a whistleblower to expose conditions in the schools in which she had taught. But in its judgment, the panel said it did not accept that the public interest issues raised by the film Undercover Teacher justified the use of covert filming.
Video contains some NSFW language.
"In going into schools and filming undercover, we accept that Ms Dolan believed she was acting as a voice for pupils, although as we will explain, we have concluded that her actions, given her registered teacher status, were ultimately misguided," it said.
The panel chairman, Ralph Ullmann, said Dolan's primary motivation arose from her role as a journalist and there was no justification for covert filming. "We do not accept that there were no other means by which [these conditions] could have been brought to the attention of the public," he said.
Dolan said she was "shocked and saddened" by the decision. In a statement released by Channel 4, she said: "This is a sad day for investigative journalism. "I find it beyond comprehension that the GTC can spend three years investigating me when they should be looking on their own doorstep. Instead they have decided to sweep it under the carpet and persecute the whistleblower."
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