A Scottish private school accused of discrimination by a former MI6 agent who spied inside al-Qaida has been cleared of wrongdoing but asked to improve how it handles disputes with parents.
St George’s school in Edinburgh was accused by Aimen Dean, a former bombmaker who was regarded as one of the west’s most important moles inside al-Qaida, of repeatedly discriminating against his daughter because other parents feared he was a security risk.
In a formal complaint last year to Scotland’s Registrar of Independent Schools, Dean alleged there was a “toxic environment” at St George’s due to its handling of a handful of complaints about his presence at the school, and its treatment of him and his family.
He said the school forced him and his daughter, then aged five, to have different arrival and drop-off times at school to avoid other children, which damaged his daughter’s education. He alleged senior staff said he was better off leaving Scotland, for his children’s sake.
