London teacher dismissed after joking about ’hitting’ pupils if they failed a test
A teacher at a primary school in London was fired after a pupil did not understand a joke about “whacking” him round the head, reports say.
Baiklautchmee Subrian had been teaching for over 35 years when she was dismissed from Gilbert Colvin Primary School in Ilford, in 2023.
At an employment tribunal, Ms Subrian argued the comment “had been made in jest” while she was teaching a small class of Year 6 pupils to help them prepare for their maths SAT exam, according to the Times.
Almost all the children in the class had understood the comment was not meant to be unkind, she added.
During the class, a pupil asked the teacher what would happen if they did not hold their papers in place during their tests.
Ms Subrian replied that she would “whack” them and gestured with her hand.
The hearing was told the pupil felt threatened, upset and angry over the incident and reported it to another teacher.
Ms Subrian, who had been at the school for four years, was asked to meet the head of school the next day and learnt there would be an investigation into the case.
The teacher argued at a disciplinary hearing in July 2023 that since the child continued to attend her after-school club they were not that upset.
But, a letter of dismissal sent later that month said that while the comment may have been intended as a joke because the pupil did not have English as a first language he “could not be expected to understand”.
It added the pupil had felt threatened by the teacher and the comment amounted to gross misconduct.
Ms Subrian argued that the punishment was too severe and criticised the school’s investigation as “lacking integrity.”
But at her employment tribunal in east London, Judge Jack Feeny rejected her claim of unfair dismissal.
The judge said in his closing comments: “I do not consider whether or not the comment was intended as a joke to be particularly important. It was plainly an inappropriate thing to say.
“The accompanying hand gesture compounded matters, particularly where at least some of the children did not have English as a first language.
“A teacher may get away with a comment in these circumstances if all children receive it as a light-hearted comment and laugh along. It is common ground that this was not what happened here.
“The risk of making such a joke is that if even only one child is upset by it, it must amount to a significant safeguarding issue.”
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