A Black teaching assistant from North London claims he was ‘racially profiled’ after being sacked from a school for ‘smelling of cannabis’ - despite not smoking. Eli Belmar, 28, from Islington, is considering legal action as he feels he was 'unfairly dismissed' by bosses at Bridge Academy in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
He insists he does not smoke or vape due to having double pneumonia as a youngster and says the smell had in fact come from one of his students. He said he'd been employed through an agency at the school for just over a week when the accusations arose.
And he claims he was not given the chance to fully defend himself or properly question the rumours before he was ordered not to return. Eli, who was previously a youth worker and has also taught in prisons, said he’d been rocked by the sacking which had left him psychologically scarred.
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The trust which runs the school denied Eli’s ethnicity had anything to do with him being told not to return. Eli said: “I would say it's racial profiling, I would say it’s unconscious bias and I would say it’s unfair dismissal as well.
“It had a heavy effect on me. I had to leave Milton Keynes for a whole week. I had to go and live with my parents just to have some time away. It was an irrational statement and very degrading because they don’t know me from anywhere, I’d only been in the school for a week and a half.
“The teachers haven’t even had a conversation with me and they’re having that kind of judgement on me. Psychologically, this will definitely affect me. It’s very worrying.”
'Felt as though other teachers were suspicious of him'
Eli said he had moved to Milton Keynes for work in August this year. And he then got a role at Bridge Academy, in Coffee Hall, Milton Keynes, a secondary alternative provision school in November. Eli said he'd got on really well with the students and made close ties with several of the pupils in just his first week at the school.
But he also felt the teachers were suspicious of him and didn’t approve of the way he was interacting with the children. Eli said: “I really liked it when it came to the students.
"The conversations I was having were very good because they had a lot of questions for me – being from London, a big city. Within lunch times and break times, some of the students would come up to me and have conversations. But with the teachers, I did sense a bit of animosity and a bit of jealousy because I was getting so close to the students within a short period of time.”
Eli said allegations about him 'smelling of cannabis' emerged after a student had come into the school under the influence of the drug. They had been excluded from a set of mock exams but were later allowed to rejoin the class where he was working as an assistant.
And when a teacher arrived to begin the lesson, they made comments suggesting he was responsible for the pungent smell.
He said: “One teacher who came in, she said, ‘Can you smell that’ to one of her colleagues, and then they both looked at me with a side-eye. I didn’t say anything at the time, but then on my lunch break, I received a call from my agency, and they said there’s been a complaint saying I had a smell of cannabis.
“I said, ‘Has there been a preconception of me because I don’t smoke?’" Eli said he later confronted the teacher, who told him his job was safe. But the following day, he was told he shouldn’t return to the school.
He added: “They said the teacher said even though it’s ‘fine to use it personally,’ you don’t have to come back anymore because it’s now a ‘safeguarding matter’." Eli was left confused and disappointed by the sacking and said there was no way he had used the drug due to his previous health complications. He said: “When I was younger I had double pneumonia, so I’m conscious of my health, and I go to the gym.”
'Concerns raised by a member of staff'
The Stephenson MK Trust, which runs Bridge Academy, denied that Eli’s 'ethnicity' had anything to do with him being told not to return to the school. Their spokesperson said: “An agency member of staff was engaged at Bridge who was employed by the agency and not by the Stephenson (MK) Trust. The agreement with the agency was ended due to concerns raised about the member of staff that were not in line with Trust expectations and policies.
“No part of the decision made was related to the agency member's ethnicity. The Trust is committed to diversity and inclusion in all its employment practices. We expect very high standards from all our employees and want to give the very best support to our young people.
“We have professional expectations of all members of staff, and we are diverse and reflective of the community we teach. Should a member of staff fall below these expectations the Trust would follow our policies, statutory obligations and best practices to ensure that the appropriate actions and next steps are taken.”
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