MIKE Stallard admits to being a Queen s School governor during the time when it failed its pupils and the community as a whole. Not only that, he then writes an article which is described as thought-provoking which I can only assume is meant to show why h

MIKE Stallard admits to being a Queen's School governor during the time when it failed its pupils and the community as a whole.

Not only that, he then writes an article which is described as thought-provoking which I can only assume is meant to show why he failed in his duty as a school governor.

In the article he paints a picture of his early school days at very rough school and that he scraped into Cambridge, then Birmingham. He also describes one of his teachers as a communist. Further he goes on to describe school life in schools on the other side of the pond as if it were any way relevant to the Queen's and Wisbech.

I want to know what any of this or the political persuasion of a teacher has to do with school teaching and school governorship.

Firstly, during the time he was governor,how many Queen's School pupils managed to scrape into Cambridge or any other university for that matter?

Secondly, if his past experience had any influence, why did he and all the other governors allow the then head to continually state that the school did not have a bullying problem, a statement the head made to me on two occasions? Or did he think that Queen's School pupils should suffer the rigours of a rough school like he attended?

Thirdly, if you want the real story of what it was like at Queen's I can write it as told to me by one of its ex-pupils - something she will never be able to do.

His article, coming out the day it did, gave me greater grief than I should have had to endure; and it is only now, some days later, that I am able to find the words to reply to his arrogance at even writing such an article.

Well sir, you failed many while holding office, especially those who suffered greatly from the bullying, those who did not go to school or went in for registration then sneaked out to keep clear of the bullies, those who did not go at all to keep clear of them and parents who were threatened and taken to court because their children did not attend school for the same reason, those who became so scared of the whole situation that they contemplated and even attempted suicide, those who were too scared to go back and take their final exams, those scared even to attempt working in this town for fear that they would be bullied there also, those who were victims of bullying and were then made out to be the ones at fault (this still goes on at the Queen's even today).

What no-one except the bullies seems to grasp is that if you corner even the most docile of animals and provoke them long enough they will eventually turn and fight, even though they know they are going to get hurt.

When those who are the victims do fight back the school backs the bullies and their victim are excluded and blamed.

The bullies laugh and move on to see how many more they can do it to and use it as a threat to others as well.

Mr Stallard's final remark that big schools like Queen's can get very dangerous for children means he knew what could happen and then let it. Was it his idea of a social experiment to prove the point?

I am one of the parents who had a pupil at the school during his time as one of the governors and did not need reminding of it by one of those who failed her.

Last week was one of the hardest weeks for me and others of my family to get through and any more words by this person would only serve to reiterate it, something they and I can well do without.

DAVID WHEELER

Mount Pleasant Road

Wisbech