A STRANGE SPECTACLE!
By Stephen Wilson
Image caption,
In 1993 a tall striking school pupil suddenly appeared in the classroom at Bearsden Academy, a school in an affluent suburb of Glasgow. He hardly looked like your average school student. In fact he looked too conspicuous. For a start, he struck all the pupils as in his thirties rather than sixteen, carried a brief case and wore the school uniform. Wearing a school uniform was optional and most pupils did not wear it and none of them carried a brief case around with them. What is more, the pupil's name was Brandon Lee and he had a slight Canadian accent. When a teacher told Brandon to leave the classroom because 'mature students' are relegated to other classes he answered, 'This is my class' and casually walked up to register his name.
Brandon Lee turned out to be an ace student. When other pupils in his classroom were stumped by some difficult questions they always shot a glance to Lee to provide an answer. Lee always got the answer correct and even knew more than the teachers in areas of medical knowledge. Lee became a very popular school student. He played football, took part in a school play based on South Pacific and emerged from school with 5 highers with 'A's which later allowed him to enter the medical school at Dundee University. Lee also stood up for pupils subject to racism from bullies. He even attempted to persuade the bullies to change their ways. Teachers had no discipline problems with Lee! In fact, his presence turned out to be an asset to teachers. He was very polite, helpful and diligent. In a word, he was the perfect student!
Then soon after he graduated in 1995, an earthquake shook the school and the Scots. Brandon Lee was not Brandon! Far from it! He was exposed as being Brian MacKinnon, aged 32, who had been a former school student at Bearsden Academy from 1974 to 1980. He had returned to enroll once more as a pupil at his 'old school'. The perfect pupil turned out to be a brilliant impostor! Fellow pupils and teachers were shocked by the revelations. The reputation of Bearsden Academy was tarnished. People asked 'How could a pupil who was nicknamed as Mr Thirtyish have been admitted into the school in the first place? 'Alan Cumming, a Scottish actor who played the role of MacKinnon, stated in an interview to the press that, "We Scots like to think we are canny and nobody can pull the wool over our heads, but this case calls this into question." The up shot was that he was expelled from Dundee University 'for lack of integrity.'
The scandal raises many more questions. And not all those questions have been clearly answered. Despite thirty years passing since Brian MacKinnon's hoax began, people are still talking about this scandal. It is a fascinating story in itself. The reason this old case has drawn more attention is that a former pupil at Bearsden Academy, who happened to be in Brian's class, is a film director who made a film /documentary about the scandal called 'My Old School.' {Jono Mcleod} The film came out in Summer 2022. This was not welcome news for Bearsden Academy. They had perhaps hoped that people would have forgotten about the scandal with the passage of time. By this time practically all the teachers at Brian's school had retired or left it.
The main question which Scots kept asking is - "How come Brian MacKinnon managed to pull off such an elaborate ruse?"
He himself boasts, "When I set out to do something I always do it well!" Some people gloated at the fact that one of Scotland's bastions of privilege was 'foolish' enough to be hoodwinked. It only goes to show how stupid they are. It couldn't have happened in a school in a working class district as the pupils and teachers are more streetwise! But I think this is more a complacent conceit. It fails to acknowledge the pressure both teachers and pupils were under as well as some basic facets of human psychology. Teachers are very busy and have so many other things on their mind than checking the past details of pupils.
The facts are that 30-year-old Brian MacKinnon turned up asking to be admitted to school. He invented a story that he was Brandon Lee, who had lived in Canada, but his mother, an opera singer had died in an accident and his father had sent him to Glasgow to be looked after by his grandmother. He provided two references. He was not asked to produce a birth certificate and his bogus references were never checked.
Now it is more than understandable that any suspicious teacher would not want to interrogate or question the veracity of his claim. This is the job of the admission's department, not a school teacher's or pupil's. MacKinnon claims that nobody suspected his ruse, but this is contradicted by a teacher who asked him to leave the classroom because of his appearance. But what teacher would want to ask a model pupil awkward questions about whether he is a genuine student or not?
A school teacher is loathe to expel a pupil who behaves so well. They would like to expel a pupil who was threatening and bullying pupils or creating disorder in the classroom! But why pick on a student who is a role model for other pupils? Why would any teacher in his or her right mind want to accuse such a pupil of being a liar or fraud? That is not how school teachers act at this school.
I was a pupil at this very school from 1973 to 1978. This was around some of the time MacKinnon was a pupil. My younger brother Christopher was in his class at the time and remembered him as ' a normal guy'. In fact, the vast number of pupils and teachers have fond memories of him and liked him. In the film where the director interviews pupils very few people have a bad word for him! They even feel protective of him. Some admire his nerve.
Although people express astonishment at the incredulity of teachers and pupils, is it so odd? Who would really imagine that a former school student would want to go back to his own school, after 13 years, to relive his school years? McLeod himself, who is gay, describes his own experiences at this school as 'hellish.' In deed at this school you encountered quite a lot of snobbery, elitism and pure racism. There was also homophobia! I recall some of those experiences at school. I recall when a math teacher heard that a pupil had taken up work as a butcher in his local family business, the teacher frowned on this as 'underachieving.' A few well-off pupils would look down on cleaners or pupils who had a father who worked as a bus driver.
Many pupils can easily be swayed by false rumors. I remember at this very school some strange pupil pointed at me saying, "This boy goes about burning cats to death." All his fellow pupils in his class never questioned this false allegation. For about two years, I faced those ugly false accusations. So it is not so easy imagining how school students could be easily deceived by any impostor!
My older brother James was once smiling in the classroom. He was just in a good mood! A math teacher approached him saying, "What are you smiling at? What have you got to smile at?" Life in this school could be brutal!
What I found odd about this film is how it took me back in time. I was surprised that my old English teacher Mrs Ogg had a role in this story and an actress even acted out her role! This woman was a wonderful teacher. She was thoughtful, kind and very creative. She was always using her English lessons to make pupils question the impact of racism, sexism and all kinds of cruelty. When she came across racists in her classroom she attempted to encourage them to pause and think things through.
So why did Brian MacKinnon commit such a ruse? He was never arrested by the police because what he did was not deemed a crime in Scotland. MacKinnon claims that he failed his medical exams at Glasgow University and was unfairly expelled. He states that he was very ill at the time of those exams. He assumed a false identity in order to enter another medical school in Dundee. This school only allowed people under 30 to enter it. Although MacKinnon managed to enter this school under a false age, he was finally exposed. We can't be sure how he was exposed. Some people state that a former pupil on holiday exposed him or that when he got detained by police abroad they discovered he had two passports, and they alerted the authorities in Scotland. Some claimed a neighbor had given him away. What is clear is the intensity of MacKinnon's striving to be a doctor. He was obsessed with fulfilling his ambition. Nothing else would satisfy him.
Now, at present, at 59, he is rumored to be living the life of a recluse who no longer sees people. He shuns publicity and doesn't like attention. Although he did an interview for the recent film, 'My Old School,' where the actor Alan Cumming mimicked his voice, he later disowned the director, actors and the whole film. He stated that he did not even want to watch this film. In his own autobiography titled 'Rhesus Negative', MacKinnon wrote some bizarre views of how some people had conspired to prevent him becoming a doctor for all kinds of weird reasons. According to hearsay, rumors and some reports, MacKinnon seems 'a damaged person' who lives in the past or can't come to terms with the past. He seems to spend much of his time reading up about conspiracy theories.
When I informed my Russian colleagues about this case they answered he might have had more luck in Russia. One source told me that she had heard of a friend who had forged the details on her passport in order to make herself younger so as to enter a university in Russia because she was ' too old ' for entry. She was admitted and successfully graduated. My source stated that there were lots of cases such as this where people pulled this off in the 1990's. So what appears as exceptional in Scotland hardly raises an eyebrow in Moscow!
Perhaps Brian Mackinnon was just born in the wrong place and time. Perhaps it would be more intelligent to question the inflexibility and conservatism of the Scottish education system. I mean what is the big deal of allowing a student to resit his exams a third time if this student is really intent on being a doctor? Why put so many formidable obstacles before a very talented student who simply wanted to become a doctor to help other people? If Mackinnon has been accused of 'a lack of integrity' he is a hardly alone.
Now it seems odd that my own school has become famous or rather infamous all over the World for Scotland's greatest hoax! But believe me, all kinds of bizarre events can happen in any school. But this qualifies as one of the oddest!
