A former teacher at a private school has told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that young girls complained about a male swimming teacher “playing sharks” and “nibbling” their legs.
Andrew Alexander, 69, taught at Fettes College in Edinburgh from 1990 to 2012. He moved to the Fettes junior school, Inverleith House, in 1991, and a complaint was raised in 1992 about a teacher named Bill Steen who would get in the water at the end of swimming lessons and lark about.
Alexander said: “At the end of swimming lessons [the teacher] would play as a shark and nibble legs. He sought to make swimming fun. He was a big avuncular presence, like a teddy bear.
“He had no sexual interest in any child and just wanted to make the time in the pool effective.”
Alexander said the teacher retired in 1998 and the same year the complaint was resurrected by a parent.
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A letter was sent in support of the swimming teacher signed by 32 sixth-year and younger pupils. The police were informed because the parent complained to her MP. But after a lengthy inquiry no action was taken.
In 2015 a further police investigation began with a wider remit and Alexander confirmed he had given evidence again, but told the inquiry he had heard nothing since.
Moving to another part of Alexander’s experience of the senior school, Andrew Brown QC said: “Do you remember there being slave auctions?”
Alexander said: “I was not comfortable with it. I could see it being misinterpreted but it was based on Roman slaves and raised money for charity.”
Alexander said the practice was for prefects in the sixth form to auction themselves off to other pupils.
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Saffy Mirghani, 26, a Fettes sixth form pupil from 2011-13, spoke about the “casual racism” she experienced and the school’s mock “slave auctions”.
Mirghani said: “I endured inhumane treatment ... A white male pupil would not take a pencil from me because I am black. A white female pupil entered Fettes with me and it was easier for her to acclimatise.” Mirghani said that by the second year she had experienced a huge amount of racism.
Mirghani, who said she was academically very able and is studying for a doctorate in literature, said the racism she experienced in her first weeks at the school caused her work to suffer.
Subsequently, she claimed the teachers formed a poor opinion of her and this persisted until she left Fettes.
