Concerns raised over special school after staff sacked

The four staff at Greenacre school in Barnsley were sacked for comments they made on social networking site Facebook. Some of the comments referred to an unnamed boy, with one saying: "You know how he looks like Peter Pan, shall we take him to the top of the town hall and see if he can fly."

The workers insist the comments were not intended for public consumption and were made between colleagues "letting off steam" after a particularly stressful day at the school, which provides for up to 170 pupils with special educational needs.

It has also emerged that staff have voted in favour of industrial action over the dismissals and authorities have been alerted to concerns about the management of the headteacher.

Last night, a representative of the public sector union Unison, Brian Steele, revealed it had formally written to the school's governors, Barnsley Council's head of children's services and the General Teaching Council (GTC) to raise concerns.

The union, which represented two of the four sacked staff, is also carrying out a bullying and harassment survey. Members voted by more than 70 per cent to take industrial action over the sackings but the threat was withdrawn when the two Unison members – higher level teaching assistants Sarah Carter and Rachel Mayes – indicated they did not wish to return to the school.

Barnsley Council declined to comment last night. The school's headteacher, Susan Hayter, did not respond to a request for comment and the GTC also said it could not comment.

The sacked staff, who also included teachers Sandra Barnes and Jo Carr, were dismissed after their online conversation came to the attention of Ms Hayter.

One of the four, who did not wish to be named, said: "With hindsight, I wouldn't have posted the comments on Facebook but I really think we have had a really harsh punishment. The comments were jokey and anyone who knows us would have known we were joking after a particularly bad day.

"They were taken out of context."

All four staff are intending to challenge their dismissals at an employment tribunal.

Mr Steele said: "We feel sacking was not an appropriate sanction and this could have been dealt with through a final warning. They were talking among themselves and I don't think any harm was done. "As far as I understand it, no complaints were made to the school about the Facebook comments."