A teacher has been banned from the profession after ‘inappropriately handling’ a student at a school in Dorset.

John Dadds, 64, appeared before a professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency after attempting to physically restrain a student at The Compass Learning Centre in Weymouth.

He faced allegations of inappropriately handling a pupil and doing so despite previous advice being issued.

The allegations related to an incident on May 2, 2019 after an altercation with a pupil, known as Pupil A, during an ICT lesson.

Read more: Lymington English teacher banned after misconduct hearing

The altercation followed advice given to Mr Dadds regarding ‘appropriate contact’ on four previous occasions.

The panel found the allegations proven in that Mr Dadds had attempted to perform a physical restraint - known as a T-Wrap and involving crossing the subjects arms against their torso - after being approached in an ‘aggressive’ manner by the pupil.

Mr Dadds contested that the attempted restraint ‘unfortunately and unintentionally’ didn’t work - the teacher fell against a desk during the process and Pupil A kicked Mr Dadds whilst he was on the ground.

The panel heard evidence from a witness - known as Individual A - who had become concerned after viewing CCTV footage relating to the incident.

Read more: Dorset teacher inappropriately restrained three pupils

On the date of the incident, Mr Dadds was experiencing issues with his IT equipment and allowed pupils to play on computer games until he was ready to start the planned lesson. 

When Mr Dadds was ready to commence the lesson, he used some software to block the computer games, causing Pupil A to react in a negative manner.

Pupil A began to leave the classroom which prompted a warning from Mr Dadds.

Following this exchange, Pupil A became visibly frustrated. Mr Dadds told the panel that Pupil A said he was going to “smash up” Mr Dadds’ laptop, or words to that effect. 

The CCTV footage “clearly showed” Pupil A approaching Mr Dadds in an angry and aggressive manner with Mr Dadds saying he felt Pupil A was an immediate risk to others in the room.

Mr Dadds told the panel that he conducted a dynamic risk assessment and was concerned that Pupil A would attempt to damage or throw his laptop and attempted a ‘T Wrap’ restraint.

Individual A said, having viewed the CCTV footage, she could not see “any legal or ethical conditions” for the attempted restraint.

The panel accepted Mr Dadds’ evidence that he was concerned that Pupil A may damage the laptop and/or cause injury to himself or others.

'Without anger or malice'

The panel also accepted that, although the CCTV footage did not have sound, based on the evidence before the panel, it was more likely than not that Pupil A threatened to damage the laptop.  

Whilst acknowledging that Mr Dadds acted without ‘anger or malice’ the panel concluded that conduct was at the ‘lower end of the spectrum of serious misconduct’. 

A prohibition order was issued with a review period after two years with the panel saying there was “some risk of the repetition of this behaviour.”

A representative from the Compass Learning Centre said to contact Dorset Council for comment: Dorset Council said they would not be offering a comment.