Struck-off teacher's £500k health claim
Disgraced headteacher Susan Duncan is chasing around £500,000 in compensation over claims the Black Country school where she worked made her ill.
Ms Duncan was struck off the teaching register earlier this month after she was found to have spent Meadows Special School's funds on a private diving holiday to Jamaica.
She was at the helm of the brand new £5 million facility in Dudley Road East, Oldbury, when it opened in 2003. But within days, Ms Duncan, known as Angela, was taken ill with breathing difficulties.
Hospital tests indicated that she was allergic to some of the building materials used in the construction and she started running the school from an office three miles away at the local education authority headquarters in West Bromwich.
But subsequent tests ordered by the council gave the building a clean bill of health.
Ms Duncan, of Fairburn Crescent, Pelsall, launched legal proceedings against Sandwell Council shortly after and the case, which is still ongoing, is expected to reach a conclusion next year.
Ms Duncan was suspended from the school in June 2006 and at a hearing at the General Teaching Council on August 6 this year she was found guilty of professional misconduct and told she would not be able to work as a teacher for the next five years.
During the hearing it emerged she had spent more than £3,000 of the Oldbury school's funds on a trip to Jamaica in 2006 and made a false claim for £306 for a swimming with dolphins excursion on a private holiday in Antigua in 2004. She had claimed it was research for a future school trip.
Sandwell Council's education boss Councillor Ian Jones said today that he could not comment on the case while the legal proceedings were ongoing.
Other staff were taken ill at the time with asthma-type symptoms, resulting in the council having to fork out £1 million for supply staff. At one point 20 supply teachers had to be drafted in at once to cover for sick staff.
