Teacher wins £70,000 after attacks by pupil left her traumatised

Published on Monday 31 August 2009 21:35

A SPECIAL-needs teacher has been awarded more than £70,000 after being the victim of a series of assaults by a pupil at her school.

Teresa McCarthy, 51, was punched, scratched and had her hair pulled by the then 13-year-old boy at Drummond School in Inverness in 2001.

The attacks made her depressed, affected her confidence and gave her nightmares, she said, and she eventually quit and began training as a nurse.

She raised an action for damages against Highland Council, claiming the injury and illness she suffered were foreseeable and arose from the authority's failure to adequately fulfil its duty of care towards her.

In June 2001, the pupil, known as M, repeatedly punched Mrs McCarthy and another female teacher on the head and shoulders. The other teacher resigned and wrote to the school and the council's education department, warning someone would be seriously hurt unless something was done about staff safety.

Mrs McCarthy was repeatedly punched again by M in an incident in August. On 6 September, after becoming uncontrollable in class, he pulled her down by the hair and repeatedly punched her, leaving her with several scratches to her face and neck which had to be treated by the school nurse. M was suspended from the school for three days.

On 19 September, the boy again lost control and hit Mrs McCarthy repeatedly and pulled her hair as she tried to phone for help. M was excluded from school for a week and Mrs McCarthy returned to work only after a male support worker was brought in for the pupil.

From the summer of 2002 onwards, Mrs McCarthy's mood and behaviour changed significantly as her self-confidence and self-esteem fell and she experienced a sense of dread about returning to school. She eventually left Drummond School in 2003 by mutual agreement after a period of sick leave.

The court heard a psychologist who treated her said that before 2001 she had been suffering from mild depression. However, the assaults traumatised Mrs McCarthy to such an extent that she developed a moderate depressive episode, with additional features of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

But a consultant psychiatrist who examined her at the council's request said she had not suffered PTSD but had "phobic anxiety symptoms" about her workplace that had to be seen as part of her depressive disorder, rather than a separate illness.

The council argued it took reasonable steps to fulfil its duties and that any breach of those duties could not be said to have caused the harm Mrs McCarthy suffered.

But in a written judgment, Sheriff Alan Miller said the local authority had failed to comply with its duties of care following the incident in June 2001, as a result of which Mrs McCarthy was attacked on a further three occasions.

He said: "(Those incidents] caused the pursuer to suffer loss, injury and damage. Specifically, they caused or materially contributed to the psychiatric illness experienced by the pursuer between 2002 and 2005."

He awarded her 71,158 – 14,400 in compensation and 56,758 for loss of earnings.

Mrs McCarthy could not be contacted for comment, and the council said it was still considering the sheriff's judgment.