A female teacher sexually assaulted in class by a pupil has been awarded more than £50,000 after the female school head told her it was part of her job to deal with ‘challenging behaviour’.
The head teacher, Jan Bird, also wrote an incident report which appeared to criticise the teacher for wearing a dress in class.
The assault by the 17 year old boy on the special needs teacher happened in the classroom at Warren School, Suffolk, whose motto is ‘respect, commitment, everyone matters’.
The assault by the 17 year old boy on the special needs teacher happened in the classroom at Warren School, Suffolk, (pictured) whose motto is ‘respect, commitment, everyone matters’
After intimately grabbing her, the boy slapped her on the arm and then, when she walked away, ran after her and pushed her in the back in June 2016.
The 31 year old had taught students with learning difficulties for almost two years.
She went back the next day, but broke down in tears on her way to a course and never returned, resigning on December 13.
She claimed when she reported the incident Ms Bird refused to recognise the assault as sexual and brushed it off.
After intimately grabbing her, the boy slapped her on the arm and then, when she walked away, ran after her and pushed her in the back in June 2016 (stock photo)
In their judgement upholding her claims of indirect sex discrimination and unfair dismissal, employment judge Martin Warren said: ‘She was upset by the Head Teacher’s remark to the effect that it is part of the job to deal with challenging behaviour.
‘Ms C described how she cried, taking her dresses to a charity shop, after she had read an Incident Report by the Head teacher which she saw as criticising her for wearing a dress.
‘Ms C spoke of being horrified when she learned that in the referral to occupational health in September 2016, the Respondent had said merely that she had been assaulted by a child.
‘Ms C was upset on being told that the parent of the child did not think that the assault was a sexual assault.
‘Ms C explained how she no longer uses the supermarket that she used to use because it is frequented by the child who had assaulted her, with his family.
‘She resorted to shopping online for several months.
‘Ms C explained that her problems have led to significant difficulties with her partner, she wrote of pushing him away and telling him that he does not understand her emotions.
‘She wrote of blaming him for not supporting her, whilst acknowledging that she had excluded him.
‘She wrote of feeling enormous guilt about changing their lives and that over a year later, she remains unhappy.
‘She describes how she had secretly felt suicidal.’
He added: ‘We found that requiring the victim to continue working with the pupil that ultimately assaulted her, given his known sexualised behaviour, amounted to the provision criterion or practice of requiring her to work in an environment where a sexual assault could take place.
‘We found that amounted to indirect sex discrimination.’
Bury St Edmunds employment tribunal awarded her £52,493 in total, £33,642 for sex discrimination and £18,851 for the unfair dismissal.
Since leaving the school the teacher has not been able to work full time and experiences high levels of anxiety, struggles to sleep and feels depressed.
A doctor who saw the teacher, who also suffers from epilepsy, said the sexual assault had caused her to lose weight and increased the chances of a fit..
He told the tribunal: ‘She was obviously very shocked and upset by the episode.
‘She has clearly been under a lot of stress and has lost a lot of weight over the last nine months as it has been a very difficult time with her finally leaving her post and now the resulting tribunal.’
Since the assault the pupil was moved to a new school but the headteacher failed to ensure a note of the sexual assault had been passed on to them.
Mr Warren said: ‘The victim says that she would now like to leave Suffolk to return to where she came from because she does not feel able to work for Suffolk County Council.
‘She speaks of grieving for the loss of her job and her career and that she does not feel able to trust people in charge to keep her safe whilst she is in a classroom.
‘She said that she is consumed by grief in this respect and that she finds it difficult to motivate herself to get up and get dressed every day.
‘She feels terrified of being asked why she is no longer teaching.
‘She says that she switches between emotions of anger and devastation at losing her vocation.
‘The victim is too unwell to work or to work full-time, caused primarily by the effect of the assault on her.
‘The Respondent required the Claimant to continue working in an environment in which a sexual assault might take place.
‘It knew of the potential danger, evidenced by the health and safety assessments, yet continued with retaining child A in the school and requiring men and women, rather than men alone, to work with him.’