Katherine Veitch

Introduction

Katherine Veitch was a teacher at Bohunt School in Liphook when, on 22 January 2020, she slapped a pupil across the face in her classroom during a lesson. She told police shortly afterwards that she could not recall having slapped a pupil; in court she admitted her conduct and pleaded guilty, and on 22 September 2020 was convicted of assault by beating contrary to section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, fined £120 and ordered to pay compensation and a victim surcharge. She admitted the regulatory allegation on a statement of agreed facts, and on 26 April 2022 decision maker John Knowles banned her from teaching for life, with a two-year review period — the panel having weighed the one-off slap, her guilty plea and her health against the deliberate violence of the act itself.

Background Information

Veitch’s offence took place in the classroom, during a lesson, against Pupil A. When police interviewed her shortly after the incident she claimed she could not recall having slapped a pupil in the classroom — an account the panel set against her full admission in court, for which she received credit for her guilty plea. The panel also had written evidence from her GP indicating that she was suffering from a medical condition — redacted in the published decision — at the time of the incident, that she had attended an appointment two days before it, and that she had referred to that condition as a cause of her conduct. No custodial sentence followed the conviction; the fine, compensation order and surcharge were the extent of the criminal disposal, which the panel noted was indicative of the offence’s position on the spectrum of seriousness.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of assault by beating for a one-off slap to a pupil’s face in class; admitted the regulatory allegation; banned for life with a two-year review.

The panel treated the certificate of conviction as proof of the offence and made its own assessment of what it signified. Its aggravating findings were direct: Veitch’s actions were deliberate and amounted to a clear breach of the standards on treating pupils with dignity and safeguarding their well-being, and the behaviour involved in committing the offence could have had an adverse impact on the safety or security of pupils, given it occurred in the classroom in front of a class. Its mitigating findings were equally specific: the violence was at the lower end of the scale of seriousness, involving a one-off slap to the pupil’s face, with no evidence before the panel of injury or long-lasting effect; she had admitted her conduct in court and been given credit for the plea; and the GP evidence placed a medical condition in the background of the incident. The conviction itself, the panel held, was a relevant offence — violence against a pupil inside a lesson.

Public Reaction and Consequences

On sanction, the panel found the public interest considerations outweighed her interests — the conviction of a violent offence was a significant factor — and recommended a prohibition order with immediate effect. On review, the Advice treats violence as a behaviour that militates against any review period at all; the panel acknowledged that, but found her conduct had been towards the lower end of any spectrum of seriousness, and recommended a two-year review period, which it said would “be appropriate and proportionate”. Knowles adopted both, considering whether two years reflected the seriousness of the case and concluding that it did. The order means Veitch cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England, with the earliest possible application to set the ban aside fixed at two years from its date.

Current Status

Veitch is prohibited from teaching indefinitely. She may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 29 April 2024, two years from the date of the order at the earliest — and the decision states plainly that this is not an automatic right; if she applies, a fresh panel will consider whether the prohibition should lift. The order took effect from service on her. Her criminal conviction stands alongside: the section 39 assault by beating of 22 September 2020, with its fine and compensation order. The decision does not record any dismissal by her employer; the regulatory ban, founded on her own admission in the agreed facts, is the consequence that forecloses the profession everywhere in England.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case is the register’s calibration point for the single classroom slap: violence against a pupil, admitted, with no injury proven and a guilty plea credited, still ends in a lifetime prohibition — because the Advice treats violence as the factor that most weighs against a second chance — but with the shortest review period the structure allows, preserving a route back after two years. It also records, in the regulator’s own publication, the contrast between what a teacher tells police and what she tells a court: the claimed non-recollection was weighed in the aggravating column, the plea in mitigation, and both were published. For schools, the decision documents that the safeguarding referral, the police interview, the summary criminal disposal and the TRA case run as parallel tracks, each with its own standard of proof, over the same ninety seconds in a classroom.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mrs Katherine Veitch” — source