Teacher cleared of assaulting pupils struck off register

Published on Tuesday 17 January 2012 02:34

A MATHS teacher who walked free from court despite being convicted of attacking pupils, has been struck off over complaints of threatening behaviour towards staff and pupils in two separate schools.

The General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) ruled Michael Barile should be removed from the teaching register for at least one year because his behaviour was “fundamentally incompatible with being a registered teacher”.

Barile was convicted after a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court in 2009, of assaulting two 14-year-old boys in separate incidents in 2008 at Lawside Academy, Dundee. On appeal in 2010 he was given an absolute discharge.

However, the GTCS examined complaints from pupils and teachers over a two-year period at Lawside Academy in Dundee and Madras College in St Andrews.

The GTCS found there was “a pattern of behaviour in which the respondent used physical contact to control pupils’ movements and reacted to some colleagues in an aggressive and threatening manner”.

The proven charges, which Mr Barile had denied, included grabbing a pupil by their clothes and pushing them off a chair, pushing another pupil, causing him to fall against a door, and pulling another’s hair. In its written judgment, the GTCS said: “The only sanction which would justify public confidence in the teaching profession and safeguard pupils with whom he might otherwise work in the future would be removal from the register.

“There was extensive breach of the terms of the GTCS Code of Professionalism and Conduct.

“There were a considerable number of transgressions over two years in two different schools.

“The respondent did not admit the charges, did not acknowledge the impact on the victims, and showed no remorse.

“The respondent went to considerable lengths to discredit the schools in which he worked and the colleagues and pupils with whom he worked, in order to justify his actions.”

Barile has 28 days to appeal against the decision.

He has previously claimed the professional body was conducting a “witch hunt” against him after he tried to have the hearing cancelled because he is no longer a teacher.

During the original case, the court had heard that the first youth, who had previously been suspended for assaulting Barile, was misbehaving during a maths class and was rude to him. Barile began to note the behaviour, and the youth demanded to see what he was writing. He grabbed the paper from the teacher’s desk and refused to return it.

Barile grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and pushed him back a couple of paces, saying: “I’ll put you through the blackboard.”

In the second incident, the youth swore at Barile during a history lesson and insulted him.

He was told to stay behind after class, but when the bell sounded he started to walk out of the room. Barile pinned him against the wall by putting his forearm across the youth’s chest. After finding him guilty of the assaults, the sheriff decided Barile could be admonished.

An appeal against the admonishment in 2010 resulted in him receiving an absolute discharge.