An experienced primary school teacher was sacked after one of her pupils did not understand that a threat to ‘whack’ him round the head was a joke.
Baiklautchmee Subrian took Gilbert Colvin Primary School in Ilford, east London, to an employment tribunal after she was dismissed for making the comment to a small class of Year 6 pupils.
Whilst preparing the children for their maths SAT exam, she made the remark after one of the children asked her what would happen to them if they didn’t hold their papers in place during their tests.
Ms Subrian, who has been teaching for 35 years, was said to have replied she would ‘whack’ them and gestured with her hand.
The teacher argued that her comment ‘had been made in jest’ and almost all the children in the class had understood that it was not meant to be malicious.
But the hearing was told the pupil, who spoke English as a second language, felt threatened, upset and angry over the incident and reported it to another teacher.
The day after the comment was made, Ms Subrian was asked to meet with the head of the school and she was told that there would be an investigation.
A disciplinary hearing took place in July 2023 where Subrian argued that because the child who made the complaint had continued to attend her after-school club they were not really that upset.
But the teacher was sent a letter of dismissal later that month.
The school explained that even if she had ‘intended the comment as a joke’ to the student, because he did not have English as a first language he ‘could not be expected to understand that’.
It added the pupil had felt threatened by the teacher and the comment amounted to gross misconduct.
Ms Subrian criticised the investigation conducted by the school for ‘lacking integrity and said the punishment was too severe.
But judge Jack Feeny rejected her claim of unfair dismissal at the hearing in east London.
In his closing comments, the judge said: ‘I do not consider whether or not the comment was intended as a joke to be particularly important. It was plainly an inappropriate thing to say.
‘The accompanying hand gesture compounded matters, particularly where at least some of the children did not have English as a first language.
‘A teacher may get away with a comment in these circumstances if all children receive it as a light-hearted comment and laugh along. It is common ground that this was not what happened here. The risk of making such a joke is that if even only one child is upset by it, it must amount to a significant safeguarding issue.’
