Teachers banned from the classroom after encouraging pupils to fight

Two teachers who encouraged a fight between pupils at a school in Dursley have been banned from the classroom.

Richard Lewis, 47, and Adrian Ferguson, 56, were “smiling and laughing” after watching the pupils throw punches at each other during a heated incident in October 2019 at Peak Academy, a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel heard.

During the 23-second altercation one of the pupils punched the other in the head nine or 10 times before there was any intervention, according to a police interview at the time, and the panel found it was only through “good fortune” that no injuries were sustained.

The panel heard that the two pupils were separated following a “flare up”, with ‘Pupil A’ taken to a purpose-built sensory room known as “basecamp” while ‘Pupil B’ was told to take a walk to “help him regulate”. But later, after seeing Pupil B was struggling to calm down, Mr Lewis said “let’s get this sorted” and brought him to pupil A in basecamp, according to the report.

It heard CCTV footage had shown Mr Lewis “put his band behind Pupil B’s back” and say something immediately before Pupil B initiated an attack on Pupil A. While there was no audio of the footage, the panel decided on the balance of probabilities that he had said something along the lines of “fight it out”.

The two pupils exchanged blows for a period of “over 20 seconds” while Mr Ferguson and Mr Lewis stood outside the door and failed to intervene, the panel heard. During a break in the altercation, the report said footage showed Mr Ferguson gesturing towards Pupil A immediately before the altercation resumed, and “considered that such conduct could reasonably be interpreted as encouraging the continuation of the confrontation”.

One of the pupils claimed Mr Ferguson had given him a “fist bump” at the end of the fight, which the panel concluded was “capable of being perceived by the pupils as endorsing or facilitating the altercation”.

When asked why it had taken him so long to intervene, Mr Lewis told an internal school investigation that he had been making a “dynamic risk assessment” and was waiting for a “natural lull in the scuffle”. He later accepted he should have intervened in the altercation earlier.

The TRA found Mr Lewis’ conduct “fell significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of a teacher” and that he was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.

“The panel considered that ordinary members of the public would be shocked to learn that an experienced, senior teacher had allowed, and encouraged, pupils to engage in a fight,” the report said.

He was banned from teaching at any school in England indefinitely, and cannot apply for the order to be set aside for at least three years.

Mr Ferguson was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and was banned from teaching indefinitely. He cannot apply for the order to be set aside for at least two years.