With regard to your report concerning Bruce Hogan and his treatment by the justice system, I am surprised at the relatively restrained reaction of the teaching profession to such an outrage (“Teenage lies put man through court hell”, TES, August 29) .
Mr Hogan correctly exercised powers under the Education Act 1996 to restrain an unruly pupil using reasonable force. This was clearly obvious to magistrates and also to police who investigated the incident and whose recommendation was that no charges be brought.
Despite this, officials at the Crown Prosecution Service somehow arrived at the extraordinary decision that a prosecution would be “in the public interest”.
Where were the leading articles, in publications like The TES, condemning the damage caused to Mr Hogan’s school and to his pupils’ education by the unjustified suspension and prosecution of a teacher who broke no law and who committed no offence ?
At the very least, the Crown Prosecution Service should pay compensation to Mr Hogan’s school, Lakers school in Gloucestershire, and apologise to the pupils whose preparations for public examinations were needlessly disrupted.
Nigel Roper Hampton Hill Middlesex (Full address supplied)
