When school site manager Lee Smith realised his colleague Jeff hadn’t shown up for work, he knew something was wrong.
“It got to probably, I think, about eight o’clock. And yeah, it just didn’t feel right,” Smith told Big Issue. “With him, if he told you he was going to be in eight o’clock, he’d be signed in at half past seven.”
What followed not only saved Jeff’s life but earned Smith an unsung hero award at the 2025 Pearson National Teaching Awards.
Within 30 minutes of arriving on site, Smith and another colleague drove to Jeff’s home. His car was still in the driveway, but attending officers said they could not force entry. “They said they couldn’t, because they weren’t the correct police officers for the job,” Smith recalls. “Apparently that has to be a special unit.” When he asked what would happen if he broke in, they warned he could be arrested if Jeff pressed charges – and doubted he could get through the door. Read the Big Issue Article here
