Feltham teaching assistant loses unfair dismissal claim after puppet incidents

A teaching assistant at Edward Pauling Primary School in Feltham was dismissed for gross misconduct after pupils reported that he tickled five girls around the waist with a crocodile puppet. He sued for unfair dismissal, but a Reading Employment Tribunal rejected his claim.

The tribunal heard that Peter La Bouchardiere described the tickling as playful banter and said pupils had not told him to stop. It also considered a parent’s complaint about a remark involving “nuts in your pants”, which he said referred to feeding a squirrel; he later acknowledged how it sounded. He had worked at the school for nearly ten years, was dismissed in September 2023, and police took no further action.