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    Making the bald man cry

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7350523.stm

    Bald teacher loses disabled claim

    The judge said Mr Campbell's baldness was not a disability

    A retired schoolteacher who claimed he was a victim of disability discrimination because he is bald has lost his claim.

    James Campbell, 61, formerly an art teacher at Denny High School in Stirlingshire, took Falkirk Council to an employment tribunal over the issue.

    He told the Glasgow tribunal he had suffered from harassment at the hands of pupils because of his baldness.

    In his ruling, the tribunal judge said baldness was "not an impairment".

    Mr Campbell, from Stirlingshire, who is also claiming constructive and unfair dismissal against the council, said pupils at the school perceived his baldness as a weakness.

    If baldness was to be regarded as an impairment then perhaps a physical feature such as a big nose, big ears or being smaller than average height might of themselves be regarded as an impairment

    Tribunal judge Robert Gall

    He claimed his baldness had a "substantial and long term adverse effect" on his ability to do his job.

    Speaking during the hearing, Mr Campbell said: "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.''

    The former teacher, who retired in 2007, said he avoided corridors in the school where he would meet pupils to avoid them shouting ''baldy''.

    He added: ''I left school later at night after the bell went to avoid the kids."

    'Big nose'

    Mr Campbell said that if the pupils were prepared to call him baldy to his face, they might also assault him.

    Falkirk Council argued that baldness was not a physical or mental impairment and was therefore not covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

    Tribunal judge Robert Gall said that because Mr Campbell's baldness was used by others to taunt him, it did not mean it was a disability.

    He said: "It seems to me it would be to take the definition of impairment too far.

    "If baldness was to be regarded as an impairment then perhaps a physical feature such as a big nose, big ears or being smaller than average height might of themselves be regarded as an impairment under the DDA.

    "That, to me, cannot be right looking to the DDA, the guidance and relevant case law.''

    Mr Campbell's constructive and unfair dismissal claim against the council will go ahead at a later date.

    #2
    Making the bald man cry

    I remember arguing with someone on the old board who wanted the NHS to stump up the costs of hair loss treatment.

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      #3
      Making the bald man cry

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        #4
        Making the bald man cry

        Hahaha, I thought of that scene as soon as I saw this thread.

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          #5
          Making the bald man cry

          The former teacher, who retired in 2007, said he avoided corridors in the school where he would meet pupils to avoid them shouting ''baldy''.
          Did the poor guy lack the wit to respond by saying: "And you smell like poo!"? Or the sense to tell these horrid kids: "I may be bald, but I'm the one who can make you fail. So be nice, snotnose'"

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            #6
            Making the bald man cry

            This is Britain, G. They'd have stabbed him up or something. And filmed it on their camera phones while playing tinny music and snorting alcopops.

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              #7
              Making the bald man cry

              Which would have given him a more persuasive case for the disability case.

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                #8
                Making the bald man cry

                I work with a bloke who's bald, and, so far, his only source of torment is following West Ham. Follicular deprivation is not a hurdle for him to overcome.

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                  #9
                  Making the bald man cry

                  Unfortunately, PT, your first suggested retort isn't witty, and the second isn't sensible.

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                    #10
                    Making the bald man cry

                    The physics teacher at one of my secondary scools was completely hairless (well, the bits of him that you could see certainly were, and so smooth was he that you could tell there wasn't a whisp on him), which was an open goal for radiation-based verbal jape-foolery.

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                      #11
                      Making the bald man cry

                      Losing your hair fucking sucks. It's a source of unending misery for me.
                      It would be ok if I didn't have a head shaped like Sloth out of the Goonies. I could just shave it then and look cool.

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                        #12
                        Making the bald man cry

                        Er, Hofzinser, it is indeed not witty, in exactly the same way as ripping the piss out of somebody for being bald is not quite Wildean. I had hoped it would be evident that I thought the whole thing a bit childish on both sides.

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                          #13
                          Making the bald man cry

                          Then he's be a bald twat too

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                            #14
                            Making the bald man cry

                            Sometime ago, I was coming back from work when some bloke around the age of twenty, who was off in the direction of a local pub with his mates, shouted 'Oy, baldy!' in my direction.

                            Rather than being hurt by it - which I wasn't, having been resigned to hair loss years past (and puzzled because it hasn't all completely gone yet) - I thought 'Child! Hasn't he left school yet?' (the twat didn't even have the saving grace of originality-based jokes), and that's the obvious bit: the person persuing this unlikely disability claim is in the most appropriate setting where his baldness will come under jokingly cruel scrutiny. He's in a classroom surrounded by kids, the perfect place where, for example, anyone who wears glasses (as I did when at school) will get slaughtered (as I did when at school). What did he think they were going to do? Write 100-page treatises about the beauty of the bonce? Comment on his baldness in the same way an art critic would the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel?

                            Yes, it hurts, but the best way (short of getting a syrup, which would probably bring more spite) is to acknowledge it and make fun of it himself in an orgy of self-deprecation. Get in there first and disarm all criticism by doing all the jokes yourself.

                            Pulling himself together and accepting the situation through humour rather than looking for a paycheck would solve some, if not all, of his problems.

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                              #15
                              Making the bald man cry

                              BALDY BASTARDS TOLD TO STOP BEING SO BALD ABOUT EVERYTHING
                              BALDY bastards were last night told to shut up and stop being so bald about everything.

                              Can't you afford hair, Mr Baldy?The move comes after the latest increase in hairless men being particularly bald towards people who do not look like a big, daft egg.

                              Nikki Hollis, 26, said she was sick of men getting all bald on her every time she and her friends pointed at their bare, baldy heads and laughed at them in the street.

                              She added: "Did they leave their hair on the bus? I keep mine on top of my head, that way I always know where it is. Stupid baldy bastards.

                              "If they like hair so much then why don’t they just grow some like any normal person? It’s not exactly difficult. My baby does it, and she’s only six months old.

                              "They just want to go around being all bald, and then get baldy with us when we point out what baldy bastards they are. Slapheads."

                              Professor Henry Brubaker, of the Institute for Studies, said men who claimed they were bullied at work because of their lack of hair were just being bald for the sake of it.

                              He said: "Explain this to me. Soon as they start to lose it off the top they start worrying about losing the lot so what do they do? They shave it all off. How bald can you get?

                              "What’s wrong with keeping a few tufts? And why not dye them orange and wear big, flappy shoes so we can all have a laugh?

                              "Or what about a wig? The modern ones are really good. No one can tell you’re wearing one. You daft, bald, wiggy bastard."

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