A mathematics teacher attempted to sue a top private school for racial harassment after he was reported to the authorities for ‘deeply concerning’ messages with a 14-year-old female pupil.
Joel Bevis was sacked from his teaching role at Eaton Square Senior School in Mayfair after it was found a teenage girl sent him a bikini shot to which he responded ‘Hhhhhheeeeelllllooooo’.
He accused the co-educational day school of racial harassment and for trying to ‘bring him into disrepute and damage or destroy his personal reputation and career’.
But the tribunal held in central London dismissed Bevis’ claims and ruled that the £29,000 per year private school had reported him properly.
Bevis was ordered to pay £20,000 to cover the school’s legal costs.
Joel Bevis accused Eaton Square Senior School (pictured) of racial harassment and for trying to ‘bring him into disrepute and damage or destroy his personal reputation and career’
Bevis joined Eaton Square Senior School in January 2018 before being dismissed in August 2019.
An employment tribunal was told he then accused the private school of racial discrimination and received a £30,000 settlement from the school – made without admission of liability – to avoid the cost of litigation.
However, after he was sacked Mr Bevis began messaging some of his former pupils, some aged 14 and 15, on social media to offer them maths tutoring.
‘[Eaton Square] policies (in common with those of other schools) prohibit teachers from engaging with their students on social media, for obvious safeguarding reasons,’ the tribunal said.
‘We have seen the social media exchanges between [Mr Bevis] and three of these pupils.
‘On any objective level, they are inappropriate exchanges between a former teacher whose relationship with the children arose only because he had taught them and who had been in a position of trust in relation to them.’
The tribunal heard that Bevis ‘made derogatory comments about the teaching of their then current maths teacher’ as well as ‘derogatory comments about the private tutor’ whom one pupil had at the time.
The tribunal said: ‘He was clearly doing this in order to persuade them to use his services.
In addition, there were a number of ‘concerning examples’ of the language used by Mr Bevis and the students and his ‘level of familiarity with the pupils.
A 14-year-old girl sent a picture of herself on the beach in a bikini top to which the claimaint replied: ‘Hhhhhheeeeelllllooooo’.
The hearing was told that in November 2020 two of the pupils he messaged complained to their current maths teacher, who informed the then Head, Caroline Townshend.
The school reported Bevis to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) responsible for child safety who informed the police.
Eaton Square Upper School pupils pose with Camilla in 2010 at a reception for the Poetry Together initiiative (file image)
The tribunal heard that while the police didn’t find the messages to be criminal they were found to raise safeguarding concerns.
Bevis – who claimed the messages were not initiated by him and denied they were inappropriate – took Eaton Square Senior School to the tribunal claiming harassment and victimisation for reporting him.
He claimed that a white teacher at the school had also been following pupils on social media.
He also accused the school of breaching a confidentiality agreement regarding the initial £30,000 settlement.
However, his case was rejected by the panel.
Employment judge Richard Baty said: ‘[Eaton Square] quite rightly took the matter seriously…the advice was to seek advice from the LADO.
‘The LADO advised them that they should make a report. The School duly made that report.
‘Although those at [Eaton Square] were well aware that [Bevis], with his history of litigation, might well ‘go legal’ if they did so, they decided, quite rightly, to treat the matter as they would with any other teacher and to make the report.
‘[Eaton Square] did not therefore, as [he] has alleged, make a ‘malicious’ report or one which ‘was intended to bring him into disrepute and damage or destroy his professional reputation and career’. ‘
The employment tribunal decided to order him to pay £20,000 towards the school’s legal costs.
