A private school teacher was sacked after she ordered a pupil out of her class for removing his covid mask to have a drink of water - just 38 seconds after the lesson began. Suzanne Smith sent the child out as he didn't ask for permission to take the face covering off and claimed that his actions had 'presented a serious and imminent risk of danger'.
However, she forgot about him and failed to check outside the classroom for almost half an hour during which time the teenager went to another part of the school, an employment tribunal heard. The 'aggressive' teacher told a hearing that her strictness when it came to covid was due to her having a 'clinically vulnerable' son.
But the tribunal rejected her claims of covid fears after hearing she had taken her family - including her son - on holiday to Greece when he 'should have been shielding' and threw out her claim for unfair dismissal. The Cardiff tribunal heard Mrs Smith worked as a teacher at St. Clare’s - a private school in Porthcawl, South Wales.
