Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Unfairly sacked teacher’s anger
A TEACHER unfairly sacked from a private school in Perth over claims he pulled a pupil’s hair says his career has been ruined.
Mark Dibnah was fired for gross misconduct after an incident at Craigclowan Preparatory School on February 20 2023.
The 60-year-old had been accused of losing his temper, kicking a table and pulling a boy’s hair.
But an employment tribunal in Dundee unanimously ruled he had been unfairly dismissed.
The disciplinary panel also felt that Craigclowan head teacher Liz Henderson “lacked the necessary degree of impartiality to conduct a fair disciplinary hearing”.
The school has not ruled out appealing the decision.
Mr Dibnah has been a primary school teacher for 25 years, beginning his career at state schools in his native Leeds.
In 2008 he moved to Scotland and began teaching seven to eightyear-olds at Craigclowan.
His wife Carol also took up a teaching job at the private school, which charges £5,370 per term.
But he says his career has been ruined after the school involved the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) and Disclosure Scotland (DS), which has made it impossible for him to apply for another teaching job.
Mrs Henderson also reported the incident to the police, and it was not until November that Mr Dibnah learned no criminal action would be taken against him.
“I just wasn’t supported by the head,” he said. “Instead she reported me to the police.
“They have ruined my career – the chances of me getting a fulltime job in teaching are limited.
“I would just like to know why they dismissed me.”
When the incident happened he was teaching a group of Year 9 pupils who were “behaving in a very silly manner” on the first day back after half-term.
In the tribunal he said one of the children – pupil A – had started to “mimick the less good behaviour of the rest of the class”. He told the hearing: “I went to A. I took his arm, sat him down, looked him in the face and told him his behaviour was not acceptable. I told the rest of the group, then the other group. It had the desired effect – they got down to the activity.”
The following day a mother of pupil P, who witnessed the incident, emailed Mrs Henderson to say her daughter had “got the fright of her life as the teacher yelled and grabbed a pupil by the arm and yanked him across the desk while shouting at him”.
She added: “He then grabbed his hair and lifted his head up and back while still shouting at him.”
Pupil A testified the teacher “got very angry and kicked the table. He pulled my hand and pulled up my hair and head. He shouted at us all.”
He added Mr Dibnah had always been kind and treated him well in the past and his mother had not wanted any action to be taken.
However, a school governor concluded the teacher “grabbed pupil A, forcibly moved his head, lost (his) temper and acted in an unprofessional manner”.
A disciplinary hearing, conducted by Mrs Henderson, took place on March 13 2023 – the same day the head teacher contacted the police. On April 6 she wrote to Mr Dibnah informing him he had been sacked.
The letter referred to other incidents that, she argued, proved it was not a “one-off incident”.
In one case in 2020, he “stabbed a football” in front of pupils and was “overly angry” with another.
However, employment judge William Meiklejohn, supported by tribunal members Debbie Mcdougall and Russell Martin, unanimously ruled he had been unfairly dismissed.
The panel felt Mrs Henderson involved herself to such a degree she “lacked the necessary degree of impartiality to conduct a fair disciplinary hearing”.
“We do not suggest any element of bad faith on Mrs Henderson’s part, but this was not a fair disciplinary process,” the report said. “We found that this was... enough to tip the scales in favour of a finding of unfair dismissal.”
The panel agreed there was a 75% to 80% probability that Mr Dibnah would have been sacked anyway, but that the way he was dismissed was unfair.
The school and the complainant were asked to come to a compromise on the amount of compensation awarded to him.
The employment judge said that Mr Dibnah’s passion for teaching was very apparent and his “belief in himself as a good teacher was supported by the content of the character references”.
Mr Dibnah said: “I have been a teacher for more than 25 years and have been recognised as an excellent teacher during all that time.
“There has not been one blemish on my record. I really want to make it explicit I did nothing wrong.
“The problem with what Mrs Henderson and the school did was that they took very limited evidence presented to them and went straight through to dismissal.
“It was not properly investigated by the senior management team.
“One of the things that made it possible for me to carry on is that I have been supported by parents and staff at Craigclowan.
“We were given 28 letters testifying to my good character.
“I feel let down by the senior management team and the governors, not my colleagues.”
He was represented in the hearing by wife Carol, who has now taken redundancy from the school because she felt her position had become untenable.
“Neither of us have a professional job now,” he said. “We have to take our pensions early.”
Mrs Henderson has been in a senior management role at Craigclowan since 2014, when she was appointed joint acting head, later becoming deputy head before taking on her current role in 2022.
A spokesman for the school pointed out that its safeguarding policies were praised in a March 2023 Education Scotland report, adding: “Craigclowan acted quickly and decisively in response to a situation where there was concern a member of staff’s conduct had fallen short of what we expect.
“However, due to the fact a legal process is still ongoing, including a potential appeal, it would not be appropriate to comment on the judgment in detail.
“The school notes the tribunal panel was ‘able to agree there was a very significant probability the claimant would have been dismissed if a fair procedure had been followed’.”