Teacher struck off over balaclava confrontation

Farah Belkhelfa said she attempted to remove the student's balaclava to identify them

A teacher has been banned from the profession after pulling at a student's balaclava during a confrontation on a bus in which she said she kicked and bit the pupil in "self defence".

Farah Belkhelfa, a former foreign language teacher at Ormiston SWB Academy in Wolverhampton, was found by a panel to be guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.

Although she was not present at the hearing, in a witness statement from April 2022, the same month as the incident, Miss Belkhelfa said she approached the group of 15-20 students on the bus for "shouting extremely loudly".

She said she was so upset and angry at one of the pupils for shouting expletives at her and she started to remove the balaclava, leading to the student assaulting her.

In her witness statement, Miss Belkhelfa said she tried to defend herself while she was being assaulted by Child A.

She said she pushed the student with her foot, biting Child A's shoulder so they would let go of her.

Miss Belkhelfa also claimed she had difficulty breathing as the student had pressed their arms against her chest, and she believed their hands were around her neck as well as grabbing her leg.

The former teacher, now 29, also said the student shouted that they would punch her.

Miss Belkhelfa did not believe Child A was a student at her school, but said the group they were a part of included students from the academy.

During an investigation by the school in May 2022, Miss Belkhelfa said she attempted to remove the student's balaclava in order to identify them, since if they were a student, sanctions could have been issued.

After assessing video footage and listening to evidence from witnesses, the panel agreed it did not believe the student's balaclava was removed during the incident.

A witness told the professional conduct panel that when the pair started fighting, Child A was quite aggressive and grabbed Miss Belkhelfa's throat while the witness was trying to separate them.

She also recalled seeing some students crying while others were encouraging the fight and some were filming.

The witness said one of the first things Miss Belkhelfa told her after the incident was: "I screwed up."

Police confirmed that no further action would be taken against Miss Belkhelfa in June 2022 and after a disciplinary hearing, her employment with the school came to an end.

While the professional conduct panel acknowledged that she said she had made the wrong choice in seeking to remove the child's balaclava and that she felt the utmost remorse, they noted that she had not acknowledged the impact of her actions on others.

They said her actions placed Child A at risk of injury.

The 29-year-old has been banned from teaching indefinitely but may apply for the order to be set aside after two years.