Teacher at private school sent ‘deeply concerning’ messages to 14-year-old pupil
9 August 2024, 09:37
A teacher tried to sue a private school for racial discrimination after they reported him for “deeply concerning” messages sent to a 14-year-old pupil.
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Joel Bevis was reported to social services after responding “Hhhhhheeeeelllllooooo” to a picture of the pupil in a bikini.
Officials at Eaton Square Senior School, which charges £29,460 a year, were alerted to the message after they were informed Bevis had been offering private tutoring to students.
Bevis was overly familiar with his students, an employment tribunal heard.
He accused the school of acting “maliciously” as he sued them, claiming both racial harassment and victimisation.
He alleged the school attempted to “bring him into disrepute and damage or destroy his professional reputation and career.”
He was dismissed from the school in 2019 and came to a £30,0000 settlement with the school after his sacking.
After his removal, Bevis went on to message pupils at the school through social media, offering maths tutoring.
Mr Bevis, who is black, accused the school of discriminating against him because of his ethnicity, pointing out that a white teacher at the school also followed pupils on social media.
In his social media exchanges with students, Mr Bevis allegedly “made derogatory comments about the teaching of their then-current maths teacher at the school and, in the case of one pupil, made derogatory comments about the private tutor whom that pupil already had at that time”.
In 2020, two students reported the teacher to Eaton Square Senior School Caroline Townshend.
The employment tribunal heard that while Mr Bevis’ messages did not constitute a criminal offence, they did cause safeguarding concerns.
Bevis claimed that his messages were not inappropriate and it was the student who initiated contact with him.
These claims were rejected by the tribunal judge, who praised the school for “quite rightly” taking the social media messages seriously.
The teacher was ordered to pay £20,000 in legal fees to the school.
The tribunal said: “[Eaton Square] policies (in common with those of other schools) prohibit teachers from engaging with their students on social media, for obvious safeguarding reasons.
"On any objective level, they are inappropriate exchanges between a former teacher whose relationship with the children arose only because he had taught them and who had been in a position of trust in relation to them.”
