A professional standards hearing has been told that a teacher left children angry after making a racist joke and discriminatory comments during art lessons. Meurig Jones, an art teacher at Afon Taf High School in Merthyr, is alleged to have made the comments in separate classes over a two-year period.
On one occasion, in or around September and October 2022, Mr Jones relayed a racist joke to a pupil at the end of the class, the Education Workforce Council (EWC) fitness to practise committee heard. The teacher is also alleged to have told pupils on another occasion that "the therapy dog does not want to spend his day with degenerates dribbling into their cornflakes" and "you don't look like one of them" in response to finding out a pupil was gay.
Allegations of animal comparison and spraying
On the second day of the hearing on October 6, the panel also heard from a current pupil at the school who said that in or around May 2024 Mr Jones likened another boy to an animal and/or said that giving him a spray bottle to help clean after a lesson using clay was "like giving a nuclear bomb to an animal", or words to that effect. It was also alleged that the art teacher sprayed the boy in the face, although the committee was told the contents of the bottle were water, not cleaning fluid.
The panel was told that sometime between September and October 2022 he was alleged to have told a class: "If you don't keep working it will be time to get the whips out," or words to that effect.
Pupil evidence and reactions
Two pupils, one former and one current, gave evidence in person to the remote hearing. Both said they had reported Mr Jones' alleged comments to their heads of year and other teachers. They said that Mr Jones was known to talk a lot in lessons, but they had been surprised by the nature of these comments.
One, identified as Pupil One, who has now left the school, told the EWC panel that he had been in the class when the alleged racist joke had been made in 2022, but had not heard it directly. He agreed that he had not heard the comment being made, but that his friend, who is black (identified in the hearing as Pupil Six), became angry in the lesson and later told him why. "I remember leaving the class and Pupil Six was angry. He said Mr Jones told him a racist joke," he said. He said his classmate was understandably upset and angry.
Pupil One said he also recalled being told about the teacher's comments on hearing another pupil was gay and that he had heard first hand Mr Jones' alleged comments about children in the school's learning resource base (LRB). Pupil One said he became angry when he claimed he heard Mr Jones say derogatory comments about pupils in the LRB. "When I heard that it made me very angry as I have family members who are disabled," he told the panel. Pupil One said he argued with the art teacher about this. After that he was switched to another class, the panel was told.
Describing what Mr Jones had been like as a teacher, he told the panel "he would rant about certain topics in the classroom".
Teacher's response and written testimony
Although Mr Jones opted not to attend the hearing to give his side of events, the panel heard that he had responded to the allegations during the school and EWC's investigation. EWC legal adviser Eve Pifarretti said Mr Jones has said he regretted relaying a racist joke. He said he had done this only as an example of the type of prejudice experienced when he was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s.
He told investigators he was using this "joke" as an example of why the Black Lives Matter movement was important in relation to GCSE art work that Pupil Six was doing, which referenced that. The art teacher told investigators that it was an example of a racist joke his grandfather used to tell and that he had asked the pupil permission to relay that "joke". Being told this in the hearing, Pupil One said he felt it was right to report it.
Asked by the panel chair Steve Powell if he also knew that Mr Jones was a trained additional learning needs teacher, who had at one time run the school's LRB, Pupil One said he did not.
The hearing also heard from a current pupil at the school. The boy, identified as Pupil 11, said that it was at the end of an art class during which they had been using clay that Mr Jones referred to another pupil, referred to as Pupil 10, as being like an animal. Mr Jones had also sprayed Pupil 10 in the face with liquid from a cleaning bottle, it was alleged.
Pupil 11 told the panel the incident happened when the class was clearing up, using spray bottles. Mr Jones had taken one of the bottles off Pupil 10 telling him that it was like giving either a nuclear bomb, or a gun (he couldn't recall which) to an animal, he alleged. After he had confiscated the bottle the art teacher had then sprayed it in Pupil 10's face as he sat down, Pupil 11 told the panel. This had "hurt his eyes", the hearing was told.
The hearing was told that during the ensuing investigation Mr Jones said there had been around eight water spray bottles in the room, which were used to keep the clay damp and to clean up at the end of the session. He said there was water and not cleaning fluid in the bottles.
As he was not present Mr Jones has not entered any formal responses to the allegation. However, a lengthy testimony from him was read out to the hearing by Ms Piffarretti. In this the teacher said the alleged incidents had occurred at one of the worst times in his life, when he had lost friends and colleagues. He had been in sole charge of running Afon Taf's art department and was unsupported in a troublesome class.
He said some of the allegations were "unsubstantiated" but admitted relaying the racist joke, saying it had been done as an example of how the world had been, and why BLM was important. However, he deeply regretted this error of judgement. "I asked the pupil's permission to say what I did and at the same time sincerely apologised for doing so. In no way does this detract from what I did," he said.
The teacher said the comment had been relayed in a "respectful and heartfelt" way "in private" to the pupil at the end of the lesson. Mr Jones wrote that he deeply regretted doing so and that it was "an incredible mistake" and "stupid and naïve". He added that the period this had happened, and the subsequent investigation during which he was suspended, "was the worst of my entire life". He said he was unsupported with the class who he had "great difficulty teaching".
He added that he "carried the art department solely on my shoulders" and referenced the effects of the pandemic as making the job harder. Mr Jones added in his written testimony that he felt "increasingly vulnerable" in his role and pointed out that no police action was taken as a result of any of the allegations.
After a 32 year career in teaching he never returned to the school and retired from the profession as a result of what had happened. Mr Jones faces a series of professional standards allegations that his conduct was racist/inappropriate; and/or offensive and/or derogatory and amount to unacceptable professional conduct. The hearing continues.
