Teacher banned from profession in England after slapping student who laughed at classmate

A teacher in Farnborough has been banned from teaching indefinitely after he gave a student a “hard slap” after they laughed at a classmate who couldn’t answer a question.

A conduct panel found Bernard Aquilina, 35, a computer science teacher at Cove Secondary School in Hampshire, was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct. He was removed from the school in May 2024 and is now banned from teaching in England.

The student who was hit said in a statement that another student “got picked to answer as he wasn’t paying attention. I laughed because he was struggling. Mr Aquilina came over to me, clapping, saying, ‘Well done.’ He then slapped me on the cheek.”

The panel heard from eight students who provided statements that were largely consistent.

One pupil said: “I saw Mr Aquilina approach Pupil A and state to him: ‘If you’re being disrespectful, then I can too.’ Pupil A replied: ‘What have I done wrong? I only laughed’... Mr Aquilina then slapped Pupil A with his open left hand on the left cheek. This was a hard slap and I could hear it loudly from where I was sat.”

Notes of CCTV footage provided to the panel also supported the students’ accounts.

“The panel considered that whilst Mr Aquilina had shown some remorse, albeit limited, for his actions, he did not show any insight into his behaviour or engage with the severity of his actions,” a statement said. “There was no evidence that Mr Aquilina made an exceptional contribution to teaching.”

Marc Cavey, the decision maker in the case, said: “In my judgement, the lack of evidence that Mr Aquilina has developed full insight into his behaviour means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils.”

The incident took place on 5 February 2024, and Aquilina was subsequently dismissed from the school following an investigation and disciplinary hearing in May 2024. He had been teaching at the school since September 2020.

He is banned from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He can apply for his prohibition order to be set aside in September 2029.

The panel found that his conduct constituted a criminal offence and said that Aquilina had breached his duty of care towards pupils and his obligation to observe appropriate boundaries.

“Mr Aquilina’s actions were fundamentally incompatible with his being a teacher, and as such, the panel considered that prohibition was both proportionate and appropriate,” a statement said.

The Independent