Baldness is no disability, judge tells teacher who left job after pupil taunts

LIKE most teachers, James Campbell was no stranger to taunts and mockery in his classroom.

But when he started going out of his way to avoid pupils' shouts of "baldy", and hid inside the school until children had gone home, it became clear he had reached the end of his tether.

Mr Campbell, 61, a former teacher at Denny High School, Stirlingshire, endured repeated taunts from pupils over his hair loss. Such was the extent of the harassment that it affected his day-to-day activities, he said.

The now retired teacher took his local authority employer to a tribunal, claiming he was a victim of disability discrimination because he was bald.

But yesterday his case was thrown out, after the tribunal judge ruled that baldness was not a disability.

The judge rejected the idea that baldness was an "impairment" under the Disability Discrimination Act, and warned that if he had found in Mr Campbell's favour, anyone with a "big nose or big ears or of less than average height" could consider their condition a disability.

One former teacher told The Scotsman it was no surprise Mr Campbell lost the case, adding that it was impossible to change children's behaviour, only the way a teacher reacted.

In his case against Falkirk Council, held at a Glasgow tribunal, Mr Campbell said pupils at the school perceived baldness as signifying something wrong with him, and as a weakness.

The former art teacher pointed out that he was perceived as different, and different from the pupils in particular, none of whom was bald.

Mr Campbell, who retired last year, argued that his lack of hair was an impairment. He said: "My baldness has had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on my ability to do my job. How can I stand in front of a class with confidence to get on with my job when I am getting teased and bullied about baldness, when I think they are laughing at me all the time?"

Mr Campbell, who is also claiming constructive and unfair dismissal against the council, said he felt hurt by the insults and lost confidence in his ability to carry out his job.

He explained that he avoided corridors in the school and certain other hotspots where he might run into groups of children, simply to lessen the abuse.

He added: "I left school later at night, after the bell went, to avoid the kids. That was when I got all the bullying and teasing. I had them coming up to my face and calling me 'baldy'."

He further told the tribunal that if pupils were prepared to call him "baldy" to his face, they might well assault him, and he was in fear of his safety.

Mr Campbell, who lives in Falkirk, stressed that while baldness might seem trivial or unimportant to some, the effect it had on him was severe.

He said that since he had left the school, he had been able to put the issue of his baldness and teasing out of his mind, although occasionally if he was driving and stopped at traffic lights, former pupils would still shout "baldy" at him.

Falkirk Council argued that baldness was neither a physical nor mental impairment, and was therefore not covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Rejecting Mr Campbell's disability discrimination claim, the tribunal judge, Robert Gall, said: "I am of the view that baldness is not an impairment. It seems to me to take the definition of impairment too far if baldness of itself is to be regarded as an impairment."

Mr Campbell declined to comment further yesterday. His constructive and unfair dismissal claim against the council will go ahead at a later date.

Bill Aitken, the Tory MSP, said last night: "As someone similarly follicly challenged, I have some sympathy, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Some might feel that a great many people need to have a much more robust attitude in dealing with life's disadvantages."

BENEFITS OF A BARE HEAD

• EVEN if you find you have slept in for an important appointment, fortune favours the bald. Getting ready in the morning is, after all, much quicker, with brisk showers and no need for cumbersome hairstyling.

• With a new, overhyped, overpriced product coming on to the hairstyle market every other day, those with no hair need not concern themselves with complicated combinations of shampoo, conditioner, gel, and hairspray.

• Some experts believe baldness evolved as a way for men to show women they were ready to mate. Some men's hair follicles become more sensitive to male sex hormones, such as testosterone, causing them to shrink and stop the hair from growing, thereby proving that the bald man has plenty of manly testosterone pumping round in his system.

• Many a photo album is besmirched by embarrassing hairstyles which slavishly emulate the trends of the day. With a hairless head, the bald can be the spared the agony of sporting a mullet, only to have their grandchildren snigger at the offending pictures decades later.

&149 All that money saved on hair products can be splurged on a selection of natty caps, beanies, scarves and handkerchiefs.

Bald facts that make retaliation a hairy prospect

Hugh Reilly

IT'S a sad fact of life that children have always teased teachers about their physical appearance. My history teacher had only one eye, hence he was christened "Cyclops" and my English teacher, who had a thin, hooked nose, was known as "Budgie".

When I started teaching three decades ago, I had a full head of hair.

Over the years, the tide of time washed away my wavy hair, and growing a Tom Selleck moustache proved no compensation.

When it became clear that my head had embarked on a follicly-challenged path, kids began calling me "George", (from George and Mildred, a popular comedy series of that time).

Later, my moniker changed to Uncle Fester and today, I think some of my cherubs refer to me as Shrek. To my mind "Shrek" shows some imagination – reserve your pity for over-nourished female colleagues who are inevitably deemed "fat cows".

In some cases, the bullying of staff is more menacing. A colleague had toothpaste and a can of antiperspirant left on his desk, with a note saying: "Brush your teeth and wash yersel ya dirty b******!"

To bring oneself down to their level of name-calling is wrong; thus it's better to smile in the face of one's tormentor and trust that the school management will take a hard line with the abuser, although, unfortunately, this is not a foregone conclusion.

A teacher has too much to lose by overreacting to the utterances of mindless idiots. Though it is difficult, ignoring the barbs and doing the best job in the circumstances is as much as Sir can do. And that's the bald truth.

• Hugh Reilly is a modern studies teacher and Scotsman columnist.