Primary school teaching assistant sacked for tickling five schoolgirls with a crocodile puppet

A primary school teaching assistant has been fired after tickling five schoolgirls with a crocodile puppet.

Peter La Bouchardiere was reported after a pupil said he made her feel 'uncomfortable' during a PE lesson at a school in Feltham, west London.

The special needs teaching assistant said it was just 'tongue in cheek and cheekiness' and that he often playfully 'chased' young pupils.

He also replied to a child who was singing a song from a cartoon about having squirrels in her pants, asking 'Would you like some nuts in your pants?', before other pupils laughed and he corrected himself.

He told of there being a 'culture of touching' at the school and that he had not meant to do anything inappropriate.

Following his sacking, Mr La Bouchardiere sued for unfair dismissal but has now lost his claim at Reading Employment Tribunal.

He started working at Edward Pauling Primary School in Feltham in April 2013 and worked there for almost ten years with pupils up to year six – who are aged ten and 11.

Inquiries began when he was told of making a pupil feel 'uncomfortable' on two different occasions.

The tribunal heard that the school's safeguarding and attendance manager received a report on March 9, 2023, that Mr La Bouchardiere 'had behaved inappropriately towards a female year six pupil'.

The ruling added: 'She spoke to the pupil, who said that the claimant had been tickling her and four of her friends on their waists.

'It was said that he had done this in PE and during the Gifted and Talented club sessions.

'It was said that he had done this using a puppet and had pretended to "get" them with it.'

The tribunal also heard the pupil's mother told the school that during homework club her daughter had been singing a song from a cartoon called 'I got some squirrels in my pants' and Mr La Bouchardiere asked her: 'Would you like some nuts in your pants?'

She said there was a five-second delay before he added 'for the squirrel'.

The mother said she found it 'extremely inappropriate' and that she had known about the tickling for a while.

During the school's investigation, Mr La Bouchardiere was suspended, before the allegations were put to him in a meeting. 

The tribunal heard that when asked about the nuts comment, he replied: 'Oh, now I understand how that sounds.'

He explained in a subsequent letter that he had said something about 'feeding squirrels nuts' to the pupil who was singing but 'meant nothing inappropriate'.

At a school disciplinary meeting, talking about the tickling, Mr La Bouchardiere agreed that he 'might have bit them in the region of the waist close to the hip with a crocodile puppet in a playful fashion' and that he had probably done it to a 'few' children.

He told the meeting: 'Some of the older ones and the younger ones - younger ones I would have been chasing.'

He said the pupils 'always engage for friendly banter', adding: 'I probably have tickled - they banter about my food looking like sick or my haircut or anything so I probably have tickled them but they have never said stop because I would have.'

The tribunal was told he also said at the meeting: 'Some of them I have known for eight years so it is just friendly conversation and sometimes banter is involved and if they don't notice me coming I try and scare them a bit.

'I thought it was tongue in cheek and cheekiness.'

He was interviewed by the police two months later and admitted tickling the children and enjoying 'banter' with them, but he did not think they ever said they did not like it.

No further action was taken by the police but he was dismissed from the school in September 2023 for gross misconduct.

He appealed because he said that the school's investigation of the pupils' allegations was not thorough enough, but this was unsuccessful.

Mr La Bouchardiere told the tribunal he 'didn't think tickling was a problem', adding: 'I only knew tickling was wrong from the police when discussing casual touching with them.

'I didn't think the waist was inappropriate [for tickling] until it was explained to me.'

Giving evidence to the tribunal, the school's vice chair of governors Peter Tyndale said the school panel had discussed not dismissing Mr La Bouchardiere but he had been 'stupid'.

Mr Tyndale said: 'It took a while - we didn't take it lightly, safeguarding and very large responsibilities.

'I didn't agree with everything of the panel but the decision was based purely on a safeguarding issue. You cannot touch children in a swimming costume area.'

Employment Judge Colin Baran ruled that the school was entitled to sack Mr La Bouchardiere, 'largely on the basis of his own admissions' and 'serious safeguarding concerns'.

The judge said: 'In my judgement the panel diligently considered all of the circumstances relevant to the appropriate sanction.

'They considered alternatives to dismissal, to the extent that Mr Tyndale himself explicitly considered a final written warning to be appropriate.

'Through deliberations, however, the panel came to the view that dismissal was the appropriate sanction.

'The admitted conduct in relation to tickling was in breach of safeguarding principles and the Code of Conduct.

'It met the definition of gross misconduct in the school's Disciplinary Policy. It was sufficiently serious to justify dismissal.'