A maths teacher who asked a Muslim student if she had a bomb under her hijab has not been banned from the classroom, a tribunal heard.
Mark Holland made a string of inappropriate comments including calling a student a ‘dumb blonde’ and telling a female pupil she ‘could do better’ in reference to her boyfriend.
But a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel decided banning Mr Holland from teaching would ‘not be proportionate or in the public interest.’
Between March and December 2022, the secondary school teacher made several offensive remarks to students at Great Academy Ashton in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside.
Other comments include telling a teenager ‘Bet you have loads of boyfriends with your looks’ and dubbing another ‘The Liar.’
He worked at the school for almost five years but in September 2023 was forced to leave after a disciplinary hearing.
The panel said his comments towards the Muslim student, who he called ‘The Nun’ were ‘not racially motivated but were likely to be religiously insensitive’.
They said his conduct ‘fell short of the standards of behaviour expected of a teacher, but ruled that it ‘did not meet the threshold for serious misconduct.’
Mark Holland made a string of inappropriate comments between March and December 2022 including asking a Muslim student if she had a bomb under her hijab
A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel decided banning Mr Holland from teaching would ‘not be proportionate or in the public interest.’
He ‘willingly apologised’ for the allegations against him and said he would ‘adjust the manner in which he engaged pupils.’
Mr Holland claimed to have ‘misjudged the content of the conversations as an easy way way to build a rapport with pupils’.
In a written ruling the TRA said Mr Holland’s conduct was ‘not consistent with behaving as an appropriate role model to students.’
Decision maker Sarah Buxcey wrote: ‘I have concluded that a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest.
‘I consider that the publication of the findings made would be sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher as to the standards of behaviour that were not acceptable and that the publication would meet the public interest requirement of declaring proper standards of the profession.’
