Press Releases

26.04.10

Dismissal was not unjustified

Correction by the School Amdinistration of Schule Schloss Salem regarding the article in the FAZ of 18.04.2010.

In the respective article, Schule Schloss Salem is basically accused of groundlessly having forced a homosexual member of staff to give in his notice for fear of abuse allegations. The article presents the course of events in a one-side way and it additionally contains assertions that bear no relation to the facts.

It is correct that the member of staff involved showed intimate behaviour towards a pupil, which required the School Administration to act accordingly. It would have been irresponsible towards the pupil and the School to have acted otherwise. The pupil had in fact been very much affected by this said intimacy, as he did not know how he was to react to these attempted approaches.

In the previous years the member of staff had been explicitly requested several times to keep a reasonable social distance from young men.   

Schule Schloss Salem has always placed the protection of the persons involved first and foremost in its considerations, whereby the sexual orientation of a member of staff who behaves in an intimate fashion towards the pupils is irrelevant in this connection for the School Administration. A hetero­sexual member of staff would also have been made responsible under employment law for the behaviour described in this article. This has always been handled in this way in the past.

Therefore the School Administration also gave notice of this. Clarification as to whether this concerned a case of conduct constituting a criminal offence beyond the blatant violation of obligations under employment law, was to be brought about in this way. According to the Public Prosecution of 13^th April 2010, this type of behaviour of the accused is not classified as a criminal offence. The Public Prosecutor responsible has informed the School Administration emphatically that it was necessary and correct to report the case.

Giving in his notice voluntarily has nothing to do with the investigations carried out by the SPIEGEL, which began at a much later stage; the member of staff was advised to give notice so that it would be possible, in his own interests, to keep the details that were incompletely reported on in the article about his encounter with the pupil and his previous behaviour during the past few years, out of current debate. This will continue to be the aim of the School Administration.

Whether reemployment of the member of staff can, under certain circumstances, be considered will depend on being ensured that it will be possible for him to behave correctly towards those entrusted to his protection in the future.