{UAH} Teacher at Tower Hamlets school 'condoned Charlie Hebdo terror attack in front of pupils'

    

Teacher at Tower Hamlets school 'condoned Charlie Hebdo terror attack in front of pupils'

• David Churchill
• Thursday 1 December 2016

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Facing classroom ban: Hamza Jalal Tariq

A teacher faces a classroom ban after he allegedly "condoned" the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in front of pupils at a Tower Hamlets school.

Hamza Jalal Tariq, 28, effectively said during a lesson that the victims murdered by Islamist gunmen "should be killed for insulting the prophet", a professional conduct panel ruled.

The panel heard Tariq made the comment in response to a student just days after 12 people were murdered in the French satirical newspaper's Paris office in January last year.

Tariq was a teacher at Tower Hamlets PRU, which has four sites across the east London borough, since 2013, but resigned after the accusations surfaced.

They were presented before a National College for Teaching and Leadership professional conduct panel this week, which has found the Charlie Hebdo incident proven, along with a host of other allegations which it said amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

Tariq, who denied the majority of the allegations, was also found to have:

•    Given a pupil "a wedgie", which involves pulling a person's underwear tightly up around their backside as a practical joke. A witness said the student subjected to it "clearly felt ashamed" by the behaviour

•    flicked rubber bands at students and had play fights with them, in which he would "pick students up and grapple with them"

•    Called another teacher a "f***ing b****" and a "snitch" in front of pupils

•    Said it was "safe" - meaning good - that a student had been excluded from a class for bad language

•    Facilitated students being able to smoke and smoked in their view

•    Allowed pupils to play computer games and watch YouTube videos in his class

•    Sworn in front of pupils, likely on "multiple occasions"

The Charlie Hebdo incident was said to have happened, according to one witness, when a student informed Tariq of the attack during a lesson he was assisting with and in response, in front of other pupils, said words to the effect that "they should be killed for insulting the prophet".

Tariq was a teacher at Tower Hamlets PRU (Google StreetView)

Tariq, who taught a class of up to 14 eleven to 14-year-olds, denied this, along with most of the other allegations, saying they were "fabricated".

Tariq, who qualified at the University of East London before gaining further teaching qualifications at PRU, did not attend the hearing.

Terrorist attack: police officers gather in front of the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo (Picture: PA)

From his home in Redbridge he told the Standard: "It is a complete fabrication and utter joke from start to beginning. I can't remember these incidents being mentioned.

       

"Charlie Hebdo has never been mentioned to me for me to know about so that I can give any explanation."

He said he did jump onto a table on one occasion and "spudded" pupils, a reference to the greeting in which two people tap knuckles.

But he claimed he did not even know what the name Charlie Hebdo referred to before the allegations were made and did not recall hearing it mentioned in the classroom as terrorism was discussed between pupils.

• Read more

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However, after finding the majority of allegations proven, the professional conduct panel found Tariq's conduct fell "significantly short" of the standards expected in the teaching profession and that he was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct. He now faces a ban.

The PRU school, or pupil referral unit, is a multi-site school for up to 200 children up to the age of 16, many of which have been excluded from mainstream education due to bad behaviour and have severe learning difficulties and behavioural issues. It scored "Good" in every single category in its last Ofsted inspection in January 2014.

A spokesman for Tower Hamlets council, which runs the school, said: "Tower Hamlets Council were made aware of allegations against Mr Tariq in February 2015 and immediately initiated multi-agency child protection procedures in liaison with the Police Child Abuse Investigation Team accordingly.  

"The school subsequently followed the recommendations to fully investigate the concerns, to initiate disciplinary proceedings as necessary and subject to the outcome of this to make a referral to the NCTL as appropriate."

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