A primary school deputy head who bit, scratched and slapped a child has been allowed to continue working with children.
Claire Herbert was deputy head teacher and deputy safeguarding lead at Red Rose Primary School in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, when she attacked the child in June 2022.
The incident did not happen at the school and there appeared to have been alcohol involved, her tribunal heard.
Herbert got into an argument with a girl which became physical. When visited by police three days later, the girl said the teacher bit her hand and head, scratched her with false nails, slapped her, and called her fat.
Pictures taken at the time showed bruising, scratches and various red marks on various parts of the girl’s body.
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Herbert was also injured in the fight.
Responding to the incident via email last October, Herbert said: ‘I have read and considered the attached paperwork and I will admit to all allegations listed although it is a blur.’
She accepted a conditional police caution in December 2022 for common assault against the child.
A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) tribunal found Herbert was guilty of ‘unacceptable professional behaviour’ which could bring the profession into disrepute.
But it stopped short of permanently banning her from teaching, because she ‘otherwise appeared to have an unblemished record’ and showed ‘genuine and significant regret, remorse and insight’ over what happened.
The tribunal said: ‘The panel was mindful that this was an isolated incident which it considered, taking into account the mitigating circumstances and wider context, sat at the less serious end of the possible spectrum of severity.
‘The panel took account of the mitigating factors that were present and the contribution Miss Herbert had made, and could continue to make, to the education sector.’
Decision maker Marc Cavey, acting on behalf of the Education Secretary, said: ‘In my judgment, the extent of the insight and remorse demonstrated by Miss Herbert, when considered alongside the isolated nature of the misconduct found and the mitigating circumstances that were present, means that there is only a very limited risk of the repetition of this behaviour.
‘I have therefore given this element considerable weight in reaching my decision.’
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