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Sacked high school staffer learns her fate after claiming she was unfairly fired for slapping a schoolgirl on the hand
Sacked high school staffer learns her fate after claiming she was unfairly fired for slapping a schoolgirl on the hand

Daily Mail​

time21-07-2025

  • Daily Mail​

Sacked high school staffer learns her fate after claiming she was unfairly fired for slapping a schoolgirl on the hand

A lab assistant sacked from a Catholic girls' school has lost her unfair dismissal case after she was filmed slapping a schoolgirl's hand during a rowdy science class. Jillian McLoghlin was fired by St Columba's College in Essendon after the school principal reviewed a video filmed by another student, which showed the veteran technician striking the teenager in front of classmates. The footage was captured during a Year 9 biology lesson that involved students dissecting a bull's eye in August last year. Video captured an audible 'smack' as Ms McLoghlin slapped the 15-year-old girl's hand, prompting the student to recoil in shock and exclaim, 'Oh my God!' Ms McLoghlin maintained the slap was a reflex action to prevent the student from injuring herself on a scalpel she was packing away with a dissection board, scissors, and forceps. She argued her dismissal was unfair and the College had relied unfairly on a video of the incident taken without her permission. Ms McLoghlin admitted she was 'cross' from the misbehaving students who were flicking pieces of a bull's eye at each other during a dissection lesson and that she had told them to stop. But Fair Work Commission deputy president Alan Colman upheld the technician's dismissal, describing the slap as 'forceful', 'entirely unwarranted', and 'difficult to imagine being appropriate in this day and age'. Mr Colman found that the technician did not slap the student with the intention of protecting her. 'It does not make sense that slapping the student's hand would prevent her from cutting herself on a scalpel,' he said. 'There is nothing in the video that is suggestive of there being any safety risk to the student, other than Ms McLoghlin's slap. 'Further, the notion that Ms McLoghlin was trying to protect (the student) is inconsistent with Ms McLoghlin's statement that, if she had been trained on dealing with unruly behaviour, she would have been able to walk away from the situation. Mr Colman said the slap was 'entirely unwarranted'. 'In this day and age, it is difficult to imagine situations in which it would be appropriate for a teacher or a school assistant to slap the hand of a student, but if there are any such situations, this was not one of them.' Mr Colman also found there was no reason why the College should not have made use of the video recording in its investigation of Ms McLoghlin's conduct. 'The school's policy that governs electronic devices in class applies to students,' he said. 'It does not prevent the College's use of video recordings for disciplinary purposes.' He said it was evident Ms McLoghlin had not accepted full responsibility for her conduct or the seriousness of her behaviour. 'She seeks to ascribe some of the blame for her conduct to a lack of training from the College on how to deal with unruly students,' Mr Colman said. 'But one does not need such training to know that it is impermissible to slap a student.' St Columba's College principal Rita Grima gave evidence that the College has in place a policy which specifically prohibits staff from using physical means or corporal punishment to discipline or control students. She said that Ms McLoghlin had been trained on the Code as recently as February 2024 and, as an employee of the College, she was required to comply with it. Last month, the Commission awarded maximum compensation of $55,000 to a teacher sacked for yelling at students.

St Albans PE teacher banned for ‘sex with pupil' on night out
St Albans PE teacher banned for ‘sex with pupil' on night out

BBC News

time06-06-2025

  • BBC News

St Albans PE teacher banned for ‘sex with pupil' on night out

A PE teacher has been banned from the profession after a panel ruled he had sex with a sixth form pupil while on a drunken night Green, now 33, said he was "adamant" the person he met outside a nightclub was a former student and 18 or over at the student, known as Pupil A, said the incident happened in 2017 when Mr Green worked at Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School in St Albans, Hertfordshire.A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel noted that Pupil A did not wish to press charges against Mr Green, but they found him guilty of unacceptable professional conduct. Mr Green had worked at Nicholas Breakspear between September 2016 and August 2019 before moving to St Columba's College in 2019, the panel college received an anonymous email in May 2022 claiming that Mr Green had had a sexual encounter with a pupil from Nicholas Breakspear while teaching was suspended while an investigation was carried out. 'Drunken state' In a statement to the college, included in the TRA ruling, Mr Green said: "All I remember is being in my friend's car outside (a) nightclub."I remember feeling very intoxicated whilst he was chatting to two girls through the window, and I think he offered them a lift home."All I remember from then is us suddenly being in a small field or park with my friend and the two girls and somehow four of us engaged in a sexual encounter," he said due to his "drunken state", he did not register who the two girls were – "only that I had a slight recognition of one of the girls".Mr Green continued: "When I woke up the following morning, it dawned on me why I may have recognised one of the girls."I assumed she may have been an ex-sixth-form student at Nicholas Breakspear School."I have no recollection of seeing her at school in my teaching role. I had never spoken to her or taught her."He said he did not notify the school as he had "no reason to believe she was a current student". 'Immensely sorry' The panel heard that in a police report from July 2022, Pupil A told an officer she had had sex with Mr Green while she was at the police decided that it was "more likely than not that Mr Green had sex with Pupil A when she was a pupil at the school".It accepted that Mr Green "may not have realised" she was a student where he worked, but that he "did have some recognition" of TRA banned Mr Green from teaching indefinitely, subject to a five-year review concluded that "Mr Green, while intoxicated, made a deliberate decision to engage in sexual intercourse with Pupil A", but noted there was "no solid evidence to demonstrate he was aware she was a pupil at the school where he worked".In a written statement to the TRA, Mr Green said: "I am not the person I was in my early 20s."It was a shameful and embarrassing mistake that I hid from my friends, family and partner."As a result, I have focused on being the best person I can be in my career and in my relationships."He added: "I completely regret my past behaviour and I am immensely sorry." Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

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