An experienced primary school teacher was fired after one of her students did not understand that a threat to 'taking' him around the head was a joke.
Baiklautchmee Subrian took the Gilbert Colvin Primary School in Ilford, East London, to an employment tribunal after she was fired for making the remark to a small students of the year 6.
While preparing the children for their mathematics exam, she made the comment after one of the children asked her what would happen to them if they didn't held their papers in place during their tests.
Mrs Subrian, who has been teaching for 35 years, would have answered that she would 'hit' them and gestured with her hand.
The teacher argued that her remark was 'made in joke' and almost all the children in the class had understood that it was not meant to be malignant.
But the hearing was told that the student, who spoke English as a second language, felt threatened and angry about the incident and reported it to another teacher.
The day after the comment was made, Mrs. Subrian was asked to meet the head of the school and she was told that there would be an investigation.
A disciplinary hearing took place in July 2023 where Subrian claimed that because the child who had filed the complaint had continued to attend her after -school club, they were not really upset.
Baiklautchmee Subrian took Gilbert Colvin Primary School (photo) in Ilford, East London, to an employment tribunal after she was fired for making the remark for a small students of the year 6
The teacher argued that her remark was 'made in joke' and almost all the children in the class had understood that it was not meant to be malignant (file image)
But the teacher received a letter of resignation later that month.
The school explained that even if she had meant 'the comment as a joke for the student', because he had no English as a first language that he 'could not be expected to understand'.
It added that the student felt threatened by the teacher and the comment was the coarse misconduct.
Mrs Subrian criticized the school's investigation for 'the lack of integrity and said that the punishment was too serious.
But judge Jack Feeny rejected her claim of unfair dismissal during the hearing in East London.
In his last comments, the judge said: 'I don't think whether or not the comment was intended to be particularly important. It was clearly an inappropriate thing to say.
'The accompanying hand -gesture worsened things, especially when at least some children had no English as the first language.
'In these circumstances, a teacher can get away with a comment if all children receive it as an airy comment and go along. It is a common basis that this was not what happened here. The risk of making such a joke is that if there is even one child of the region, this must amount to a significant problem with security. '
