Tribunal hears from teacher dismissed after fire call

A Leeds employment tribunal has heard that a teacher, dismissed for hitting a student, was frightened when she made a phone call reporting a fire.

Steph Crossley, who worked as an IT lecturer at Kirklees College, was sacked after hitting 20-year-old Sabia Sajid on the hip. At the time she was making a phone call reporting a fire as she and the students she was teaching could smell smoke.

The tribunal heard that she needed quiet and hit Miss Sajid to try to quieten her down. At her disciplinary hearing Miss Crossley, who had 25 years teaching experience, said that she had an underlying anxiety about fires which may have prompted her to act as she did.

Andrea Machell, vice chancellor at the college told the tribunal that Miss Crossley had been given the opportunity to explain her behaviour but her remarks about a fear of fire was not considered a mitigating factor. She agreed that the teacher had a ‘proper motive’ as she believed the situation to be urgent but said that the disciplinary panel unanimously agreed that Miss Crossley had acted unreasonably, although not with gratuitous violence.

The hearing continues.

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