Teaching assistant to appeal sacking after attack by pupil, 11

ATEACHING assistant sacked by a special needs school after being attacked by an 11-year-old pupil is battling his dismissal.

John Witts had a 20-year unblemished record at the Wyre Forest School, in Kidderminster.

But his July 2015 sacking followed an incident in which he was found to have made an “ill-judged intervention” with an autistic pupil.

Mr Witts had forcibly led the boy down a ramp and away from an entrance to the school that he was partially blocking.

The boy – known as VB – had “extreme” behavioural problems and attacked Mr Witts from behind, kicking, punching and biting him. The teaching assistant’s glasses were smashed and he suffered injuries which needed hospital treatment. The pupil somehow “ended up hitting the ground with a thud, with his legs in the air” during the incident.

A school disciplinary panel decided Mr Witts must lose his job, after concluding he was guilty of gross misconduct.

Mr Witts argued he was acting in reasonable self defence and took the school to an employment tribunal in Birmingham.

The tribunal backed the school’s decision in February last year, but Mr Witts has now succeeded in overturning that ruling on appeal.

Judge Jennifer Eady QC, sitting at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, heard Mr Witts “took hold” of the boy and “forcibly led him down the ramp”.

Allowing Mr Witts’ appeal, Judge Eady found the tribunal had failed to properly consider the issue of self defence. She said: “His action in taking hold of VB and forcibly leading him down the ramp... was seen as unnecessary. His involvement was seen as an error of judgment and as the catalyst for what took place next.

“Of itself, however, that first part of the incident would not have caused the school to dismiss Mr Witts.

“The second part of the incident involved VB attacking Mr Witts. It was during this part of the altercation that VB landed on the ground”.

Mr Witts’ lawyers argued that his “response to VB at this stage would have to be seen in context as a response to a sudden physical attack.”

The judge said VB had been “brought to the ground” after the assistant’s “physical reaction to an attack.”

“It gave rise to questions relating to the possible justification of self defence and we cannot be sure the tribunal had regard to those matters and we therefore allow the appeal on this basis,” the judge concluded.