Teacher banned from classroom after shoving boy against wall and swearing at him

A maths teacher who pushed a pupil into a wall and pushed another one in the chest has been banned from the classroom for at least five years.

Christopher Clarkson, 46, grabbed the boy who had been vandalising a post, swore at him, and grabbed his shirt, CCTV footage showed.

Police investigated and took statements, and Mr Clarkson was sacked by the de Ferrers Academy, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, where he had worked for four years.

A disciplinary hearing banned him for using “unnecessary and disproportionate violence towards a pupil”.

In a written statement describing the events in October 2024, Mr Clarkson stated: “I followed, told them to stop, but they kept going. I reached out and grabbed his coat, he turned around and shouted ‘Don't f***ing touch me’.”

He added: “I followed him and shouted ‘Don’t swear at me, you little s***’. There was a lot of swearing back and forth from the student and myself.”

The CCTV footage showed the teacher put his head towards the boy’s face, and backed him into a corner, “appearing to use his size and stature to prevent him from leaving the corridor”, the hearing was told.

Mr Clarkson grabbed the boy’s clothes, admitting: “I started to walk away, and the student shouted something at me, I returned and I grabbed the front of his shirt.”

He denied pulling the child towards him, but the panel found this was proven on the balance of probabilities. And he then pushed the boy towards a wall, the panel also found on the balance of probabilities.

The boy, referred to as Pupil A, said in evidence: “Then Mr Clarkson grabs me by the front of my shirt/coat near my neck and starts swinging me around and during this he swings me into the wall and the doors and I bang my head.”

Mr Clarkson stated: “I’m not sure which parts of him, if any, connected; the push was not very hard.”

Camera footage also captured the teacher pushing another pupil, a friend of the first, in or near the chest while the teacher and first boy were walking away. The CCTV footage showed the second pupil pushing Mr Clarkson back.

“There were no legitimate grounds for Mr Clarkson to have used the force he did against Pupil A,” the professional conduct panel concluded.

“There was no need to control or restrain Pupil A, he presented no physical harm to himself or others, and he had ceased vandalising the post that had prompted their interaction.”

Mr Clarkson was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, and panel members ruled his actions constituted conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

The teacher, who was not present at the tribunal and was not represented, said in his evidence that he had never reacted in such a way to pupil behaviour before, even when provoked. He blamed his actions on something that was redacted from the tribunal’s conclusions.