A former home economics teacher who quit her job over racist abuse dished out by pupils at a Perth school has failed in a bid to claim £20,000 compensation.
Rizwana Mallet-Ali left Bertha Park High School in November 2021 after 21 months in the role.
The Scot, who describes herself as being of Pakistani ethnicity, felt pupils mocked her origins and skin colour. She reported six pupils over eight incidents.
Ms Mallet-Ali did not believe that her reports of abuse had been treated seriously and she believed undue delay in the process had added to her stress.
She took the school to an employment tribunal where Judge Brian Campbell agreed that she had sustained racially motivated verbal abuse.
However, he dismissed her claim.
List of incidents
Ms Mallet-Ali, who has been a teacher for 14 years, began at Bertha Park in February 2020.
She said the following incidents took place between Covid lockdowns:
- Autumn 2020. Pupil addressed her using the word ‘Wagwan’, a West Indian patois form of greeting. Ms Mallet-Ali has no ethnic connection with that area or culture, and speaks with a Scottish accent. She considered the comment was racially motivated as she was the only non-white member of staff in the school.
- April 19 2021. A group of pupils began speaking with an Indian accent.
- April 29 2021. A pupil twice repeated back something she had said but in an exaggerated Indian accent.
- May 6 2021. A different pupil from the same class repeated something said by her in an Indian accent.
- May 10 2021. Two incidents a short space apart. The first involved a pupil using the term ‘Wagwan’ more than once. The second involved the same pupil from the May 6 incident. Again, he spoke in an exaggerated Indian accent.
- May 20 2021. A student teacher heard a pupil mocking Ms Mallet-Ali by using an accent.
- May 24 2021. Another pupil used the greeting ‘Wagwan’ on entering the claimant’s lesson.
- May 25 2021. A pupil put on an Indian accent.
Pupils asked to ‘change their behaviour’
The employment tribunal, which took place in Dundee during October and November, heard that after each incident the school’s approach was to take the pupil (or one of them if in a group) out of the class.
There would be a conversation involving the claimant, a guidance teacher, head teacher Stuart Clyde or a combination.
“The pupil was usually returned to their class if there was time before the end of the lesson,” the report read.
“If there was not, they would come back for the next lesson.
“The school consciously takes what it calls a ‘restorative’ approach to pupil behaviour which breaches its expected standards.
“Broadly, this involves having a discussion with a view to persuading the pupil to change their behaviour by understanding why it is not acceptable, rather than any more punitive steps.”
Police visit to school
Ms Mallet-Ali felt the school was not doing enough to prevent the incidents from happening or to otherwise protect her.
She wanted offending pupils to be excluded from her class and for the school to report the incidents to the police as hate crimes.
Scottish Government regulations state that a pupil can only be excluded from a school for misbehaviour if their presence would likely be seriously detrimental to order and discipline or the educational wellbeing of its pupils.
But depute head teacher Ally Mills did inform the police and PC Scott Menmuir spoke to all but one of the pupils reported on a visit to the school.
Ms Mallet-Ali went off sick with anxiety on May 27 2021.
Almost six months later, on November 11, she resigned over the “‘irretrievable breakdown in the employment relationship’ due to the way her concerns had been handled and her grievance had been responded to”.
Teacher’s health impacted
Summarising, Judge Campbell recognised that Ms Mallet-Ali had sustained racially motivated verbal abuse from pupils on a number of occasions in April and May 2021.
He added: “This was distressing to her to the point that it impacted on her health.
“However, according to the particular provisions of the Equality Act 2010, for the reasons above the respondent did not treat her less favourably than it treated, or would have treated, a relevant comparator by reason of race.
“Her claim therefore must be dismissed.”
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