Tribunal rules dinner lady unfairly dismissed

A tribunal has ruled that a school dinner lady was unfairly dismissed after she told a couple their seven-year-old daughter had been bullied.

Carol Hill was working at Great Tey Primary School in Essex when she witnessed Chloe David, tied to a fence and being whipped with a skipping rope by four boys. The school’s head teacher wrote to Chloe’s parents after the incident but only referred to Chloe suffering a minor injury with a skipping rope, not mentioning that she had been bullied.

However, Mrs Hill saw Chloe’s mother at a scout meeting later and told her what she had witnessed. She then gave a written statement to the family which was passed on to the police. When the school found out, she was suspended for breaching pupil confidentiality and was later sacked for telling a local paper about the case.

Mrs Hill said that she had been made a scapegoat and had been sacked as part of a “cover-up”. The head teacher, Deborah Crabb, said that Chloe had been playing a game of “prisoners and guards” which had gone too far and that the boys in question had been dealt with. She said that she had recommended that the school governors dismiss Mrs Hill for gross misconduct because she had discussed the incident out of school.

A remedy hearing will be held on 2 February to determine whether Mrs Hill will get her job back or be granted compensation.

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