Teacher sacked for simulating a 'sex act' with a broomstick in front of her class could be victim of schoolyard conspiracy



Patricia Isabella Davies was dismissed in 2006 after pupils claimed she simulated male masturbation in class in 2004



She claimed to be teaching scientific theory



Pupils' statements were found to be contradictory



The judge ruled that there was evidence Miss Davies was a victim of a 'conspiracy'

She has been granted permission to argue her case at the Court of Appeal



'Conspiracy' victim: Teacher Patricia Isabella Davies has fought to clear her name since she was sacked for allegedly miming a lewd act

A science teacher who was sacked for allegedly miming a lewd act with a broomstick during class may have been set up by pupils in a conspiracy which turned into schoolyard ‘folk history’, a judge has said.

Patricia Isabella Davies was dismissed in 2006 after several pupils claimed that she simulated male masturbation, using a broom as a prop, while teaching them about the production of static electricity by friction at Willingsworth High School in Tipton, West Midlands in 2004.

The former assistant head of science at the school has battled to clear her name ever since and yesterday, Appeal Court Judge Lord Justice Elias ruled that there was ‘a considerable amount of evidence’ that she had been an innocent victim of a ‘conspiracy’ among her pupils.

He granted her permission to argue her case at the Court of Appeal.

Outside court after the hearing Miss Davies said: ‘I know what's gone on.

‘I'm fed up with what's happened to me.’

The teacher from Wolverhampton, in her 50s, was given a final warning over the incident in 2005 after ‘a number of statements either in double figures or approaching double figures’ were received by the school from pupils who said they had witnessed her demonstration.

She was dismissed by local education authority, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, in 2006 for alleged misconduct with the broomstick allegation counting crucially against her.

Although Miss Davies' unfair dismissal claim was rejected last year by an Employment Tribunal, which said the warning had been issued in good faith, her representative, Ivan Yates, told the judge there is powerful material contradicting the children's story.

That included records showing that she had in fact been teaching Hooke's Law of Elasticity on the critical day and attendance registers indicated that two of the pupils who made statements condemning her were actually absent from school at the time.

Mr Yates said: ‘On that date, she provides something appropriate - which was a broom - to demonstrate Hooke's Law.

‘She had taught the class static electricity on another day and the two lessons have been conflated together to make something salacious.’

The school had viewed the children's evidence as overwhelming but attacking that conclusion was ‘obviously wrong’.

He said: ‘You have got statements from children not in the lesson and you've got the lesson on the wrong day.’

Justice Elias said that there was ‘some possibility that there may have been some sort of conspiracy by the pupils to fabricate the incident’.

Permission to plead: Judge Lord Justice Elias said there was considerable evidence that pupils had conspired against her and he gave her ermission to argue her case at the Court of Appeal (pictured)

He said: ‘The school proceeded on the basis that the evidence from the children was so overwhelming that the new evidence could not be considered relevant.

‘The tribunal was satisfied that the final warning was given in good faith and had not been unfairly or improperly issued. It may well be that is a wholly sustainable conclusion.

‘However, I see some force in the submission that, where an employer has deliberately chosen to ignore evidence that, if it had been accepted, would wholly undermine what, on the face of it, would be powerful evidence of misconduct, in those circumstances perhaps the final warning ought to be construed as a nullity.

‘I am granting permission in this case.’