Teacher groped by a pupil shouldn’t have worn a dress, said headmistress

A TEACHER who was sexually assaulted by a pupil was later criticised by her school head for wearing a dress in class.

The woman, named only as Ms C, broke down in tears and resigned after a 17-year-old boy attacked her during a lesson.

She claimed the headmistress at the school in Suffolk brushed off her complaint and told her that it was part of her job to deal with ‘challenging behaviour.’

She also wrote an internal incident report which appeared to blame the teacher for wearing a dress during the incident. An employment tribunal has now awarded the teacher £52,493 in total – £33,642 for sex discrimination and £18,851 for unfair dismissal.

The hearing at Bury St Edmunds heard she had been teaching students with learning difficulties.

But she resigned after the pupil intimately grabbed her before slapping her arm and pushing her in the back.

She returned to school the next day, but broke down in tears on her way in and quit.

More than a year later, the affair had left her feeling suicidal, the hearing was told.

In a judgment 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 headteacher 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, 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 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.’

Mr Warren added: ‘We found that requiring the victim to continue working with the pupil that intimately 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.’

Since the assault, the pupil has moved to a new school.

After leaving, 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.

He told the hearing: ‘ 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.’

‘Secretly felt suicidal’