A primary school A teacher was fired after she taught students as young as nine how to do a TikTok dance.
Georgia Rogers had been a teacher at West Grantham Church of England Primary Academy in Grantham, Lincolnshire since 2019.
She was dismissed after supervisors found that she had ‘approved’ underage use of the social media app – as children must be at least 13 years old to use it.
The hearing was told that on the last day of term in July 2021, the students in the teachers’ year five class ‘wanted to show her a TikTok dance’.
Miss Rogers ‘agreed’ and said she would teach them the moves as she used to be a dance teacher, and she recorded it on the school’s iPad.
This video was not uploaded onto any social media site, but the panel said this was ‘evident’ that the children had been ‘viewing TikTok’.
On another occasion the pupils asked another teacher if they could film a TikTok video, and when they were told they couldn’t they replied ‘well Miss Rogers did’.
She ‘did not log the pupils’ use of TikTok as a safeguarding concern despite her knowledge that the legal age for using it was 13.
An employment tribunal found Miss Rogers failed to report her pupils’ use of the app, and an investigation into her conduct found ‘a number of small things which put together make a bigger concerning picture’.
On March 10 2022, the teacher was dismissed as the investigators found Miss Rogers overall behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.
The teacher ‘understood the age grading of TikTok to be aged 13’ – but had taught pupils how to dance a ‘recognised TikTok dance’ and filmed this for them on the pupils’ iPad, the investigation concluded.
In being dismissed, Miss Rogers was told: ‘The panel therefore felt that this could be seen as condoning pupils to use a social media site that was not appropriate for 10-year-olds.
‘Furthermore, despite knowing that the students were using TikTok you did not raise this as a safeguarding concern, which you acknowledged you should have done.’
Miss Rogers sued the school, claiming unfair dismissal and disability discrimination as she said she had PTSD, but her claims were rejected – despite an employment judge saying the investigation into the TikTok allegation was ‘flawed’.
Employment Judge Victoria Butler said Miss Rogers was ‘undoubtedly a committed teacher who enjoyed her job’ with a previous ‘unblemished disciplinary record’.
EJ Butler concluded the school’s investigation into the TikTok allegation was ‘flawed’ and as a result the allegation itself did not result in ‘gross misconduct’.
However, the tribunal found dismissing Miss Rogers in relation to the other allegations was the ‘reasonable response’ and her claims were not upheld.
