A teacher at a London boarding school made a pupil wait outside the school office for 13 hours without breakfast or lunch as punishment for not going to prayers, a panel has found.
Yusuf Musa taught at Darul Uloom London, a private Islamic boys’ boarding school and sixth form in Chislehurst, south-east London, when the pupil in question allegedly did not attend the mandatory morning prayer.
Mr Musa, 32, denied that he made the student wait outside the office for 13 hours, but a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) misconduct hearing ruled he had “exposed the pupil to harm or a risk of harm” by making him wait from 8am to 9pm for his parents to arrive on December 19 2017.
This was one of a string of allegations made against Mr Musa, the tribunal heard. The hearing was told Mr Musa, who taught at the school for seven years, had a number of bladed weapons at his flat on the school premises, including three samurai swords and a hawk handle knife.
Mr Musa denied he had “kept bladed weapons on school premises”, arguing that the items “were not weapons in the conventional or practical sense, but rather a personal collection of historical and decorative replicas”, the tribunal heard.
He added: “These items were not in active use, and never intended for use, nor did I ever handle them in a way that could be reasonably perceived as dangerous or threatening.”
The panel heard there were a series of locks preventing pupils from accessing Mr Musa’s flat, and concluded that, given the number of locks in place, the teacher keeping the swords in his flat did not constitute inappropriate behaviour and “did not expose one or more pupils to harm or a risk of harm”.
It was also alleged Mr Musa, then 25, had an altercation with two delivery drivers on the school premises on May 30 2018, which he denied.
But the panel found Mr Musa had a “heated altercation” with one of the drivers and “used profanity” in the incident which led to armed police being deployed to the school.
The hearing was also told Mr Musa failed to declare his convictions for driving offences when he applied for his job at the school in 2011.
The panel found this allegation proven and ruled he had acted dishonestly.
Another allegation was that Mr Musa, who joined the school as a teacher and was later made designated safeguarding lead, failed to safeguard pupils at the school adequately after an anonymous staff member received an indecent image in August 2017.
But the panel did not find the “stem” of the allegation regarding the anonymous teacher proven, and therefore ruled Mr Musa had not failed to safeguard pupils in that regard.
The TRA did not bring any evidence over an allegation Mr Musa had an altercation and threatened a person with an imitation firearm at the school in May 2018, and the panel therefore found it not proven.
The panel ruled Mr Musa was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
It heard Mr Musa had been removed as a trustee of the school, was no longer a teacher and ended all involvement with the school as part of an agreement between Darul Uloom London and the Department for Education. No more details of the agreement were disclosed.
In a written conclusion published on Tuesday, Marc Cavey, on behalf of the Education Secretary, decided Mr Musa should be banned from teaching indefinitely, subject to a three-year review period.
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