School condemns 'abusive' posts by Reform leader

A school has accused a Reform UK councillor of sending "abusive messages" after he likened the conduct of its special educational needs (SEND) co-ordinators to national rape gang scandals.

Ryan Coogan was elected to Huntingdonshire District Council in May and is the group leader of the authority's third largest party.

He alleged one of Cottenham Village College's SEND co-ordinators was "making victims' lives more difficult and ruining children's futures one huge mistake at a time" and called for the resignation of a staff member.

In a letter to parents on Friday, Astrea Academy Trust, which runs the school, said it was "our duty to protect [staff] from unreasonable, personal attacks".

Coogan was elected to represent the Ramsey ward in the local elections.

On Thursday Coogan posted on Facebook, naming a SEND co-ordinator at the school and said: "I can assure you, talentless individuals, who have absolutely no clue about children and their needs, should be nowhere near children, let alone working in schools."

He said the staff member "should resign immediately", adding: "I think the Academy SENCO scandal is as big in size as the rape gang scandal just not as heinous."

An inquiry into child sexual abuse by grooming gangs is ongoing.

Tomas Thurogood-Hyde, the director of corporate services of Astrea Academy, wrote to parents "to address a significant concern with online activity containing abusive messages".

The letter read: "Yesterday, at least two Facebook posts were published by a parent, personally attacking [the staff member], calling for her resignation or removal from work in schools and comparing the conduct of school SENCOs to the national rape gang scandals.

"I cannot go into detail about what prompted this, but I can say that this parent had not addressed meaningful concerns to the school before making these posts.

"Instead, the school received two emails of a similar nature to the Facebook posts, again personally criticising and threatening the employment of [the staff member]."

Coogan told the BBC he could only speak for one post, and added: "The people have had enough of Astrea Academy and much of its senior local leaders, they will not stop until Astrea Academy is removed from Cambridgeshire.

"The sooner Astrea realise that the only way they will not be publicly scrutinised is if they engaged positively in private with stakeholders, or indeed hand back the keys to all the schools they operate across the region."

In a statement to the BBC, Thurogood-Hyde said: "We are committed to the wellbeing of our staff and will not tolerate any form of abuse, intimidation or harassment directed towards them, in person or online.

"While we always welcome respectful and constructive dialogue, we will not accept behaviour that seeks to undermine or target individual members of staff."

Huntingdonshire District Council is led by a coalition of Liberal Democrats, Greens and Independents.

It said in a statement: "All Huntingdonshire District Councillors are required to sign and adhere to the member code of conduct.

"If any concerns regarding the conduct of a councillor are raised with the council then these are considered in accordance with the council's established standards procedures."

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