School housemistress suspended after ‘sexual banter’ with female student
A HOUSEMISTRESS at the prestigious Rugby School engaged in “sexual banter” with a female student as they visited the doctor, a tribunal heard.
Jocelyn D’Arcy is said to have told the girl “if [the doctor] asks if you are sexually active, say no, but I’d like to be”.
The Oxford, Cambridge and MIT-educated maths teacher also joked she “wouldn’t mind being alone with the doctor” during the trip.
D’Arcy faced 20 allegations of misconduct in her first two months at the £42,000-a-year public school in Warwickshire.
She was accused of giving alcohol to sixth-formers and also caused “fear and distress” among 14 year olds when she asked one of them to remove her top and angrily threw a mobile phone, a tribunal heard.
Some of the girls described the teacher’s behaviour as “violent and threatening”.
D’Arcy was eventually suspended by the school and removed from the housemistress role.
She later resigned and sued Rugby School, claiming disability discrimination because her behaviour was a result of her suffering from ADHD, anxiety and depression.
But the tribunal dismissed most of her claims and concluded she had exercised “poor judgement” which “seriously called into question her suitability for the housemistress role”.
The panel noted “several serious errors of judgement including around sex and alcohol”.
The tribunal in Birmingham was told D’Arcy had been a successful maths teacher at a number of “well-regarded schools”.
She moved to the Rugby School, where former pupil William Webb Ellis is credited for inventing the game the establishment is named after, in September 2020.
The teacher was accused of inappropriately describing girls as “lazy, weird and bratty” and using the phrase “the cool girls” to described some pupils.
D’Arcy was told she was being given a final written warning and was being removed from her position as housemistress in May 2021, six months after her suspension.
She resigned that August, accusing the school of disability discrimination and harassment, unfair dismissal, victimisation and unfair treatment for whistleblowing.
In his ruling, Employment Judge Robin Broughton said: “We would accept that [some of the allegations] were, potentially, gross misconduct.
“We would also accept that these, as well as some of the allegations of unprofessionalism and poor judgement around privacy, language and safeguarding, indicated a lack of suitability for the HM role that couldn’t realistically be materially attributed to [Ms D’Arcy’s] disabilities despite her other qualities.”
D’Arcy’s claim of victimisation relating to the “tone and approach” of the way her grievance was rejected by the school was upheld.
