A “CREEPY” high school teacher has been struck off after slapping one of his pupils on the bottom.
Gordon Mundie, 49, from Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, slapped the 15-year-old year old female pupil so hard it left her bruised.
The girl was so shocked she was unable to tell anyone about the incident – which was witnessed by other pupils – for four days.
The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) decided to ban Mr Mundie from the classroom because of his “lack of insight and remorse” and the “serious and sexualised nature of the complaint”.
The music teacher slapped the girl during lunch break in January 2011, at Castle Douglas High.
The girl – then a fourth year pupil – was in the music room at lunchtime with two of her friends and other pupils.
Mr Mundie walked passed her from behind on his way to his desk and slapped her, remarking “cheeky” with a smirk on his face.
Giving evidence, the girl said she “found it creepy” when Mr Mundie leant over her at her desk.
Asked by presenting officer Jonathan Guy how she knew Mr Mundie had slapped her, the girl broke down in tears and replied: “It was sore and a couple of days after it I noticed a bruise where he hit me.
“It wasn’t until the Tuesday that [my friends] encouraged me to tell someone. I knew it would be hard for people to believe me – he was one of the favourites and well liked in the community.”
Mr Mundie’s solicitor, Alastair Milne, asked the girl why she went back to the music room on the following days while the teacher was eating his lunch.
Mr Milne told the witness: “I find it extraordinary that you would voluntarily spend time in the music room after what you claimed had happened. Surely you wouldn’t go back.”
The girl said: “I didn’t know what to do. I was 15 years-old. I went there because that’s where my friends went, it was the middle of winter, I had nowhere else to go.”
In another exchange Mr Milne said to the girl: “Mr Mundie says he tapped you on the back of your leg with his foot to warn you he was carrying hot coffee.”
Crying, the girl said: “That’s not what happened!”
The GTCS panel agreed with the girl, stating that the teacher’s account was “inherently improbable and lacked credibility”.
They added: “The panel heard no evidence that the respondent has taken any steps to address his behaviour and the panel was concerned that sexually motivated behaviour may not be capable of remediation.”
