Graeme Bell from Cowes Enterprise College, has been found guilty of assaulting a pupil whilst on a residential trip to Corf Camp - a campsite in the Isle of Wight - in the summer of 2018.
At the hearing, it was revealed that another teacher had asked the student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to 'sit down and eat your food', but the child refused. Bell stomped over to the child, grabbed their shoulders, pulled them forcibly across some distance and pushed them to the ground. A colleague who accompanied Bell on the trip, described him as 'crazily mental' at that moment, and said she heard the student call out 'stop, get off me' when she gave evidence.
The Teaching Regulation Agency report stated “The panel accepted that Mr Bell's actions were not pre-mediated, but involved a loss of emotional control at the point at which the offence was committed.” Although no formal hearing took place. Mr Bell provided a signed Statement of Agreed Facts and "admitted unacceptable professional conduct and conviction of a relevant offence".
A school spokesperson said after the hearing: “Clearly the behaviour of this former member of our staff was absolutely unacceptable and has no place in any school. The safety and wellbeing of our students is always our number one priority and we have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure this. As soon as this incident happened, we suspended the member of staff involved and informed all relevant authorities. He has since been dismissed following a disciplinary hearing.”
