Maths teacher, 57, faces being struck off after being accused of shouting ‘who do you think you are?’ at pupils ‘making TikTok videos’ during his lesson ‘leaving them in tears’
- Steven Charlesworth allegedly reduced students at Milne’s High School to tears
- Claimed he was also ‘verbally abusive’ to the headteacher at school in Fochabers
A teacher who could be struck off claims he lost his temper at pupils for taking their phones out and trying to make TikToks during his lesson.
Steven Charlesworth was a maths teacher at Milne’s High School in Fochabers, Moray when the alleged incidents occurred in December 2018.
The 57-year-old is currently fighting to stay on the teaching register if the allegations are found proved by the three person panel in his ongoing General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) hearing.
Charlesworth is accused of shouting at a class of 14 and 15-year-olds and asking them ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’ and banging on a table which reduced some pupils to tears.
He is also facing allegations of acting in a verbally abusive and aggressive manner and refusing to leave the school which led to police being called.
Steven Charlesworth was teaching a third year class at Milne’s High School in Fochabers, Moray, Scotland in December 2018 when he allegedly banged on a table and shouted at the students, making some of them cry as a result
The GTCS yesterday heard from Milne’s High School’s deputy head teacher Adam MacLeod, who heard the initial incident occurring.
He was asked by Mr Charlesworth – who is representing himself – about whether the pair had conversed about phone use and making TikToks in the maths classroom after the incident.
Mr MacLeod said: ‘Not that I recall [Mr Charlesworth mentioning that a pupil had been filming on their phone]
‘I’m not sure that TikTok was a thing at that time but I know what you mean, there have been periodic incidents [of phone usage].’
Mr MacLeod then described how he was attending a business management class nearby when he heard a loud bang from a classroom down the corridor.
Mr MacLeod said: ‘The first time I heard the shouting and the banging I was immediately next door, I was in a business management room as part of a visit.
‘[I heard] A loud noise, an unusual noise for a classroom, just a loud bang noise, I wasn’t sure.
‘I speculated afterwards that it might have been Mr Charlesworth banging on the desk with his hand perhaps, it would be consistent with the noise I heard.’
The alleged incidents happened at Milne’s High School in Fochabers, Moray, Scotland
The deputy head then told the panel how he came into the classroom to see what happened and spoke to pupils.
He said: ‘I stayed in the classroom for approximately 15 minutes maybe and spoke to several students about how they were feeling, made some observations of my own based on body language.
‘I went down and had a short conversation with the head teacher about what pupils had told me and then I returned quite quickly, so maybe ten minutes max, five or ten minutes.
‘I came back into the class and my plan was to try and get us all to the end of the class without overt attention being caused, the idea was to get to the end of the lesson and speak to you and then the head teacher.’
When the lesson finished Mr Charlesworth allegedly wanted to speak to the class but the deputy head stopped him as he felt it would be inappropriate.
Mr MacLeod said: ‘You’d asked me if you could speak to the pupils at the end of the class and I said I didn’t think it was a good idea and if you let me know who the issues were with and I could take it forward.
‘It wasn’t my recollection of physically blocking anybody but I verbally made it clear what needed to happen.
‘My recollection was that I said there’d been an identified incident and we needed to go and discuss that with [the head teacher] Mrs Cameron in her office and you should gather your things and come with me.’
The senior management team member claimed he then tried to calm Mr Charlesworth when they were in the head teacher’s office.
He said: ‘I think I was kind of on the lines of wanting to encourage you to sit with us and discuss the incident at the table, you didn’t want to do that and that’s my recollection of our chat at that time.
‘She [Mrs Cameron] possibly could have said that [you should leave].. With respect you weren’t really wanting to listen and I think you were talking over both of us at points.
‘Given the circumstances it could have been something she said [in relation to how you were being].
‘It became clear that we weren’t going to be able to sit around the table so Mrs Cameron instructed you to leave the school and you didn’t take too kindly to that.
‘We walked round to the front of the reception and you weren’t leaving, I said we’d get the timesheet sorted at another point but you wouldn’t leave.
‘I think from my recollection she [Mrs Cameron] had tried and I tried and the noise level from yourself kept rising so we had to end the meeting and you had to leave.
‘I recall Mrs Cameron reacting in a way that would be similar wording to that, you were causing a scene and not following instruction from the head teacher.
‘I think it was something along the lines of you can’t tell me what to do but the wording of it, you were quite heightened I would say and quite angry.’
Charlesworth faces being removed from the teaching register if he is found to have breached parts 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.3, 4.1 and 4.2 of the GTCS’s Code of Professionalism and Conduct 2012.
The hearing continues.
Source: Read Full Article