A TEACHER jailed for firing an air pistol near a group of youths was due to face a disciplinary hearing today which will decide whether she can keep her job.
Linda Walker was meeting managers at New Park High School in Eccles, Salford, at an undisclosed location.
The 48-year-old was released from Styal Prison on May 4 when appeal judges quashed her six-month sentence after she had served 36 days.
But even though Mrs Walker was granted a conditional discharge she was refused permission to challenge her convictions for affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear.
Pellet
This means that, even if the school's headteacher and the local education authority decide she should keep her job today, she could face a government inquiry and a hearing in front of teaching regulators before she can return to the classroom.
The mother of three was jailed for firing a pellet gun at a pavement during a stand-off with a group she described as a gang of yobs outside her Urmston home last August.
She told police she had received nuisance phone calls abusing her family, her garden shed had been broken into and a car and her garden had been vandalised.
Mrs Walker will be able to appeal to the school governors against any action recommended against her today.
Should Linda Walker keep her job? Have your say.
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Ms Walker should keep her job, a one off incident caused by frustration and a lack of effective upbring and policing, I can understand why she acted as she did. Good Luck
linda walker should keep her job!
yes....she should keep her job,give the poor women a break
I've been a school teacher for 37 years. There is absolutley NO reason for her to have been jailed in the first place. Losing her teaching job because of something done OUTSIDE of school is preposterous.
If the Local Education Authority or whoever it is who deals with Linda Walker by taking her job and her livelihood, it will be a travesty of justice. Not only that, but it will send two messages out into UK society - 1) If you fight back against thugs, you will be the one who will have your life torn apart by the authorities.
2) If you're a thug - I can get away with treating people how I like. In fact, if I do something, I'll be able to smile smugly into the news cameras as though I was the one that was hard done by.
The police, the judicial system, and so-called 'human rights' organisations like Liberty must wake up to the reality of the situation. People don't feel safe on streets or their homes any more. This poor woman acted out of sheer desperation, which could have been avoided if our authorities stopped listening to bleeding heart liberals and cracked down hard on the outrageous behaviour of thuggish youths and any of their parents who try to protect them from receiving their just desserts.
My God! Your country is doomed if that's what your laws have come to. I live in Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the union and with the proper license I can own a machine gun. I have and I do which gives me and the children a great feeling of security when the yobs are at the door. By God fight on Linda Walker. We live shackled in our liberties in these Great United States during these troubled times-but by God, your liberties have been nailed to the cross of tyranny. You are in our prayers.
Well the news has broken now that Mrs Walker has lost her job. I say condolences to the lady herself and SHAME on Salford City Council, your decision means the yobs involved and those like them have WON!! Maybe you should have canvassed the ordinary law-abiding and decent Joe & Jill public and the parents of her pupils before you acted. The Salford Authorities simply haven't taken her side into account; they have, as usual, "played safe". Reeling from news of this I then read that a gentleman called Phil Carroll is seriously ill after being attacked by yobs outside his own home and in defence of his own property - yet more yobs testing innocent people to their limits. Wake up Salford - you have a bad name when it comes to crime and disorder and it seems you seek to do little to improve the situation. Why pacify the do-gooders and PC brigade, do you not live in the real world and have you not learned they have had their chance to make a difference and it hasn't worked?
I hope those involved never have to come up against the sort of angst that drove Mrs. Walker to commit this act, but those of us who have know why she did what she did. Until the Authorities take notice of the fast-growing problem of anti-social and loutish behaviour and listen and act on the concerns of the general public this will, for right or wrong, happen again. With the state of the country today I am, in some ways, ashamed to be a part of the human race! To Mrs. Walker - good luck with your appeal; in the eyes of the decent element of society you have no case answer whatsoever. Love & light be with you and yours for the future.
Of course Ms Walker should be allowed to keep her job, if she wants it back but I would not blame her if she told the so called managers what they could do with it. Once again it shows that if you stand up for yourself against the Jobs you will suffer from the law. It is no wonder nobody wants to be a teacher. Let all teachers carry guns or at least bring back the cane.
Alan Crump
Yes, of course, Linda Walker should keep her job - otherwise the yobs will have won.
Lobby your MP and write to Tony Blair demanding her reinstatement.
Why couldn't Linda have just purchased pepper spray (unless it is outlawed in Britain) and sprayed the thugs right in the eyes rather than pointlessly aiming the pistol at the ground- that's exactly what I'd have done if I were in her shoes; of course she should keep her job at the Eccles school! Where would we be if we were to only abide by some crazy man-made laws instead of being morally vigilant?