Susan was a pupil at Bessie Street School during the early 1970s. Susan was present in the classroom when deputy head Ken Barlow warned the students about pollution by recounting an incident where he told off a cab driver for emptying the contents of an ashtray outside the school. Susan asked Ken if he got hit, to which he replied that he didn't as the driver was very little. When Mark Hillkirk was caught later by headmaster Wilfred Perkins writing on the blackboard about Ken fancying Rita Bates, Terry Bates's mother, Mark blamed Susan for egging him on.