A maths teacher has been sacked after a student showed a jihadi beheading video in her lesson, even though she tried to stop him doing so. Moya Fletcher, 51, was part way through the lesson when the pupil played the video.
Despite not being involved in the screening Ms Fletcher was sacked for gross misconduct. Her harsh punishment was given despite her good track record at Rathbone, a charity providing education and training for 14 to 24-year-olds in Wigan.
The mother-of-three told the Daily Mail: “[The student] said could he show me something on the internet. I was not told anything about him, so I had no cause to suspect anything. I said ‘yes’. I stuck on the screen and it was a graphic beheading.
“I asked him to turn it off and I spoke to him about watching these kind of things. When another member of staff heard, they told the manager without talking to me.”
Rathbone defended its actions today, insisting the pupil accessed the video through Ms Fletcher’s computer and her sacking was appropriate.
Managing director Linda Dean said: “Because of Ms Fletcher’s actions she was suspended immediately and later dismissed for inappropriate conduct.
“The safety and well being of our young people is paramount and learners do not have open access to internet content, unsuitable content is blocked by a firewall. But she allowed learners to access this material on her staff computer which has a different level of access as tutors can view a wider range of materials.”
Despite the efforts of the security services beheading videos are easy to track down as hundreds of terrorists put them on social media. Many of them feature Jihad John, a man believed to be from London. He often issues threats to the west before beheading his victims with a sharp knife.
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