Teacher’s career in ruins for ‘gentle cuff ’ on unruly boy
‘An unblemished record’
A TEACHER’S career is in ruins after he was hauled through the courts for ‘brushing’ the back of an unruly pupil’s head because he was talking in class.
Matthew Mountford, 38, had 13 years of exemplary service to the school where he worked.
But after he gave the pupil a ‘gentle glance’ to the back of his head to ‘motivate’ him, the 13-year-old’s father demanded police action.
Staffordshire Police and the school initially felt the matter should be dealt with through internal disciplinary procedures.
But the boy’s father – who had a long history of grievances towards the school – refused to leave a police station until the design teacher was charged. Mr Mountford pleaded guilty to assault by beating and accepted 40 hours of unpaid work and a community order. He has now been dismissed by his school for having a criminal record. Yesterday Mr Mountford of Sandbach, Cheshire, who is now considering becoming a tree surgeon, told the Daily Mail of his anger at being hounded out of a job he loved.
The university graduate said: ‘My grandfather was a teacher, my nan was a teacher and I was a teacher. It was in my blood and until that day I had an unblemished record.
‘That day I never lashed out – it was a gentle cuff round the back of his head as he was talking away.
‘It was not in anger or as a punishment but to motivate him. I brushed his hair, that was all, but I did physically touch him.’ He said the school – which, like the boy, cannot be named because of a court order – has a zero-tolerance approach which meant the incident last October was technically classed as an assault.
That evening he received an email from the behaviour management team at the school. He said: ‘I was asked if this incident happened and I said yes.
‘The next morning I got called in by the safeguarding member of staff. I was interviewed by human resources and asked if it was something I would do again.
‘Naively I said yes as I meant tapping him on the shoulder and brushing the back of his head, but that was taken out of context as meaning I would assault a child. My comment would later become the crux of the case against me.’
He was suspended in November before appearing at North Staffordshire Justice Centre earlier this month. Jane Siddons, defending, told magistrates the boy was not hurt and did lessons for the rest of the day. Instead, the accusations were ‘fuelled’ by the boy’s father, she claimed.
Mr Mountford, who has been supported on Facebook by former pupils, said yesterday he felt like collateral damage after learning the father had a grievance over other matters with the school.
Mr Mountford’s partner Alexandra, 35, said: ‘I am just so saddened by it all. England has lost a great teacher to the supposed justice system.’