Jihadi John's Jewish teacher says there was no warning of his radicalization

          

A Jewish London-area teacher who served in the top teaching post at a school attended by a Islamic State spokesman known as Jihadi John, said that as a student, he had not been "seen as a huge concern."

Jihadi John, whose has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi, has appeared in a series of videos released by Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL, in which he is featured alongside Western hostages who are beheaded on camera, executed in the terrorist group’s trademark orange jumpsuits.

"Even now when I'm listening to the news and I hear his name I feel the skin on the back of my neck stand up because it is just so far from what I knew of him and it is so shocking and so horrendous the things that he has done," the teacher, Jo Shuter, told the BBC's Radio 4.

    

Shuter, who served as the school's head teacher from 2002 to 2013, said there had been no indication that any of the students at her school, Quintin Kynaston Academy, had been radicalized. In addition to Emwazi, two other students from the school are thought to have gone to fight in Syria and Somala, the BBC News website has reported.

"I am not prepared to say when the radicalization took place. All I can say is absolutely hand on heart, we had no knowledge of it," she told the radio station. "If we had, we would have done something about it," she said. "There was never any sense that any of these young men as I knew them were radicalized when they were in school." 

Shuter told London's Jewish Chronicle that being Jewish assisted her in her relations with Muslim students at Quintin Kynaston. "I was a secular Jewish head in a 70 percent Muslim school. It was a very interesting dynamic that was set up and it allowed us to have conversations that I think were really relevant." 

According to the BBC, Shuter left her post as head teacher at the school in June 2013 and was then barred from teaching over allegations that she had abused her expense spending, although she is being allowed to appeal the decision. 

  

Jo Shuter (Tony Blair with Jo Shuter, known as his favourite headteacher

) who spoken of Emwazi as a ‘caring, aspirational’ boy, was banned from teaching for life after wrongly spending £30,000 of public money

The superhead who has spoken of Mohammed Emwazi as a ‘caring, aspirational’ boy was banned from teaching for life after wrongly spending £30,000 of public money.

Jo Shuter was in charge of Quintin Kynaston Academy in north-west London when Mohammed Emwazi was a pupil there.

Mrs Shuter was awarded a CBE in 2010 and named head of the year in 2007. But she was forced to resign in 2013 after spending £30,000 of state funds on lavish parties and hotel rooms – including a £7,000 bill for her 50th birthday party.

She claimed expenses for fancy meals, taxi rides and overnight conferences at plush hotels. Last year, a professional conduct panel banned her from teaching for life.

This week, she claimed Emwazi was bullied during his time at the school and staff helped him to deal with his ‘adolescent issues’.

She said he was a ‘hardworking aspirational young man’ who wanted to go to university and took ‘caring responsibilities’ for his siblings.

She added: ‘When I’m listening to the news and I hear his name I feel the skin on the back of my neck stand up because it is just so far from what I knew of him.’

Most Quinton Kynaston pupils are from ethnic minority groups. A high proportion speak English as an additional language.

Mrs Shuter took over the school as a ‘superhead’ in 2002, when it was failing. She became a favourite of then Prime Minister Tony Blair, who visited several times, reportedly coming face to face with Emwazi.

She will be eligible to appeal against the ban from May 13, 2016.