Dame Mary Beaton Macdonald DBE (born 29 July 1950; née Skinner) is a British schoolteacher and former headmistress who was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for her work turning around the failing Riverside Community Primary School in North Shields, Tyneside, where she spent thirteen years.
In 2005, the same year she was knighted, Dame Mary was falsely accused of assaulting a pupil at an assembly rehearsal.
"I think this mother was annoyed that someone had seen fit to discipline her daughter and she was determined to make trouble for the school", according to Dame Mary.
Outlandish rumours and innuendo began circulating that Dame Mary had kicked the child all around the school hall.
[neutrality is disputed][2] Dame Mary holds that schools should have the right to sue parents who make false allegations against staff and to exclude pupils who do the same.