A teacher has been banned from the profession indefinitely for smacking a young boy on his bare bottom after he urinated in a school ball pit.
A tribunal panel found Tsvetelina Kaliszan, 44, who worked at Elm Tree Primary Academy in Wednesbury, intended to physically chastise the pupil.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) added she did not report her actions to the school on the day of the incident in May 2024.
Kaliszan claimed she "tapped" the pupil and his trousers had not been down at the time, but after hearing from witnesses, the panel found that she had struck his bottom, "specifically two smacks", and that on the balance of probability his bottom was bare.
Kaliszan, who started working at the academy as a class teacher in 2023, was supervising pupils in a soft play area alongside other members of staff in the afternoon, the TRA said.
One member of staff, known as Witness B, said she looked towards the ball pit and observed that the boy had removed his trousers.
"Lina got up and lifted him from the ball pit and realised he had wee himself," they said, adding that another pupil ran out, leaving behind wet footprints.
The witness added that after removing the boy from the ball pit, Kaliszan placed him lying on her lap face down and then smacked his bare bottom twice, adding it was "not a light tap".
The witness suggested the teacher knew she had done something wrong as she had a "remorseful look on her face".
The TRA panel was told Kaliszan said she had "tapped" the pupil to encourage him to move and that this action was "misinterpreted by staff as a smack or punishment".
However, the tribunal found the allegation proved and noted the teacher had received a police caution within a community resolution form, in which she was recorded as having admitted committing the offence of "wilfully assault young person under 16".
In its conclusions, the panel said Kaliszan's actions on the day were "clearly never acceptable and represented a serious transgression by a teacher of their most basic and fundamental task, to keep children safe".
The TRA said her actions constituted conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute and that she would be banned indefinitely, although she could ask for it to be reviewed in two years.
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