Primary school teacher sacked for gross misconduct after calling class 'chattering monkeys'
22 August 2024, 17:37
A primary school teacher has been sacked following racism allegations after calling a group of pupils “chattering monkeys”.
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Charlotte Moore also faced allegations of grabbing one pupil by the back of the neck and shaking another, while “jokingly” threatening to shoot one of them if the pupil continued being disruptive.
The year 6 teacher at Trinity St Mary’s school in Chelmsford, Essex, claimed she was unfairly dismissed over the incident, which the police investigated for an alleged hate crime.
Parents complained about Moore after making the comment while trying to quieten her class, an employment tribunal was told.
Parents said her language represented a “very racist comment” given the “racially diverse” class.
St Mary’s school sacked Moore for gross misconduct despite a police investigation into her alleged behaviour being dropped.
The school determined that the ‘monkeys’ comment was “serious because of the racial diversity in the class” and because it was perceived as racist by parents and pupils.
Moore, who was a teacher at the school for two years until 2023, sued the school but her claim was dismissed by a tribunal in east London.
It heard that in addition to the “monkeys” comment she had “told the class that they [were] getting on her nerves so much she wants to shoot herself or them”.
Police officers opened a hate crime investigation but they closed their inquiries within days.
Officers said they were “satisfied she used the phrase ‘chattering monkeys’ to the entire class and that this had been taken out of context and would not be considered a racial slur or hate crime”.
However, school officials investigated the other allegations, including that she caused one child pain and shook another.
The tribunal found that the pupils described Moore as being “very strict” after about half the class of 30 were interviewed.
Moore denied all the allegations, while accepting that she used the words: “You are like a bunch of chattering monkeys. Quieten down and get on with your work.”
She rejected allegations that she had physically assaulted or threatened pupils and told the tribunal she often made “overly dramatic statements” to children in a “joking way”.
Backing the school’s decision to sack the teacher, the tribunal judge, Suzanne Palmer, said the interviews conducted by school officials with pupils had “raised concerns about children feeling scared of Mrs Moore”.
The judge said there were also concerns about the “way she expressed herself in the staff room”.
Palmer said the school was “reasonably entitled” to take the view that it was “duty-bound to investigate because of its welfare responsibilities towards the children in its care”.
However, she acknowledged the monkeys comment on its own was not a justifiable reason for dismissal.
A school governor told the tribunal that comment was not the “sole incident” cited for the sacking.
