Teacher who may never work again after assault gets £850k payout

A teacher who is unlikely to work in the profession again as a result of being assaulted by a pupil received a £850,000 payout from his academy trust last year, it has been revealed.

The NASUWT teachers’ union said the settlement – believed to be one of the highest such payouts for an education professional – was secured for one of its members in 2021.

Overall, the union said it won over £14.8 million for its members last year in legal cases covering issues like unfair dismissal, redundancy, discrimination, bullying, health and safety and personal injury,

The figures are published annually to coincide with NASUWT’s annual conference, which will take place in Birmingham this weekend.

The amount won last year was more than the £11.7 million secured in 2020, but less than the £14.9 million won in 2019.

However, the £850,000 single payout to one unnamed teacher is thought to be one of the highest in recent years. The union said the amount reflected the “severity of the injuries and career-long losses”.

Teacher ‘punched in the face and kicked’

The teacher was punched in the face and kicked by a pupil during a science lesson in a London school in 2017. The pupil was not supposed to be in the lesson as a result of “previous disruptive and violent behaviour”, the union said.

He sustained “numerous physical and psychological injuries as a result of the attack”, including a head injury, tinnitus, hearing loss, bruising and back and ankle injuries. He also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depressive disorder.

The union said he had been unable to work since the attack “and medical experts have concluded the impact of his injuries means he is unlikely to ever be able to return to working as a teacher”.

The teacher and his employer have not been named for legal reasons, but NASUWT said he worked for an academy trust.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT, said the cases the union handled were “only likely to represent the tip of the iceberg”.

“There is no doubt that many other teachers will have been driven out of the profession without proper redress for poor, discriminatory or unfair treatment because they were too fearful to come forward or believed nothing could be done.

“Too many employers believe they can act with impunity as the government fails to take any action to secure compliance with employment law or health and safety legislation, allowing poor employment practices to flourish.”