The Public Shaming of a Primary School Teacher
By James Armstrong, Phoenix Futures
This week has seen the public shaming of Primary School teacher Ashley Atkin in national, local press and across social media.
I hesitate to write about this because we don’t have any contact with Ms Atkin and don’t claim to speak for her in any way. However, the story was picked up by the BBC, Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Live, The Mirror, Daily Mail, The Independent, Metro, Yahoo News, The Telegraph, The Daily Star, Daily Record, Manchester Evening News, MSN amongst many others and pushed out through their social media. With such a wealth and breadth of existing coverage I feel it is appropriate to highlight some concerns in the reporting from the perspective of the Anti-Stigma Network.
The media’s version originated from the publishing of The Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) Professional conduct panel outcome. Ms Atkins was alleged to have been under the influence of alcohol whilst working at a primary school. The combination of alcohol use and a school settings was clearly ideal content for sensationalist headlines such as:
Primary school teacher who turned up to class so drunk she struggled to walk and forgot who won star prize is banned from classroom – Daily Mail
Teacher who downed bottle of wine and turned up to primary school assembly drunk is banned from classroom – The Independent
Public shaming and ridicule seem to be the tone most of the media took, perhaps sensing this was ideal content to drive below the line engagement and social media clicks.
To be fair amongst the sensationalism some of the articles did include some wider context from the TRA report. But only in part, none of the media reporting carried the full references from witnesses who stated:
“Based on what I observed in March 2023, Ms Atkin is passionate about teaching and I believe that if she got the help she needs, she has the ingredients to be a good teacher.”
and:
“The situation with Ms Atkin feels like a very sad situation. I do genuinely believe that she was a good teacher… If Ms Atkin was to get support, I believe that in the future she could be a really good teacher again.”
Some of the articles used an edited version of Ms Atkin’s words which in the official report were published as:
”I’m absolutely devastated about what happened and it’s all I can think about. I was going through such a difficult time at that point and in such an [REDACTED] that I lost who I was as a person. Since then I have been through both [REDACTED]and [REDACTED]and am in a much better place.”
In the Daily Mail these were reported as:
“Atkin was not present or represented at the hearing but in earlier correspondence told of her shame. She said: 'I'm absolutely devastated about what happened and it's all I can think about. 'I was going through such a difficult time at that point. Since then I am in a much better place.'”
If there is any positive from this act of public shaming there was evidence in the social media and below the comments that reader themselves were disappointed with the approach the media took to what is clearly a complex issue.
Overall, it’s hard to see the duty of care the school, or the TRA, may have for teachers. Nowhere in any of the media reporting or the TRA report can I see any references to support being offered to Ms Atkin. The approach was clearly disciplinary as the TRA report highlights:
“In the letter Witness A said “You confirmed that you had been given a copy of the schools drugs and alcohol policy. We advised under no circumstances should you attend school under the influence of alcohol. You were aware that if a breach of the drugs and alcohol policy were to occur, the school would manage this through the disciplinary procedure.””
Which all leads me to ponder, does such a public disciplinary regulatory approach, combined with sensationalist media reporting and social media commentary make it more like or less likely that a primary school teacher with an alcohol issue would seek support?