Hove: Autistic teacher sacked for 'complaining too much' gets £850k

Marcus Wright was dismissed from his role as head of maths at Cardinal Newman School after the then headteacher at the time said he was taking up too much time with grievances and allegations of bullying.

Mr Wright was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Condition, sometimes known as Asperger’s Syndrome, in 2017. The school has since agreed to pay him close to £1 million in compensation.

An employment tribunal in 2021 heard that Mr Wright, who started working for Cardinal Newman in 2005, made complaints about bullying in 2015 and 2016.

Mr Wright alleged he was being mistreated by then-headteacher James Kilmartin.

He thought he was being bullied due to his involvement in supporting a colleague at a separate tribunal.

However the tribunal did not think his support was the cause of the deterioration in the relationship, but rather his complaints.

Former Cardinal Newman headteacher James Kilmartin

In comments to a disciplinary investigation, Mr Kilmartin said: “Over the last three years Marcus has taken up a disproportionately large amount of my time and the time of other school leaders and governors.

“His repeated resort to subject access requests, grievances and the continual, largely unspecified, allegations of bullying has reduced my capacity and the capacity of other members of the senior leadership team to address the wider needs of the school and its students.”

Following a meeting with the school’s chair of governors in June 2017, Mr Wright was offered a settlement to leave but he turned it down as he wanted to stay at the school.

Mr Wright was subsequently suspended from the school.

The tribunal heard that Mr Wright was “devastated” by the suspension as “despite my complaints I loved my job”.

Read More: Parents' fury as school bans mobile phones - and threatens to keep them for months

He added that due to his autism he had “become fixated” on the grievances and “pursued it tenaciously”.

Mr Wright suspected he was autistic and was formally diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Condition in November 2017.

In November 2018, Mr Wright was offered a return to work but would be demoted to the role of “high-performance coach”.

Mr Wright said he would reluctantly accept the role “under protest”, but then clarified "I do not mean to cause any concern whatsoever" and “All I want is my career back and I hope this works out.”

The school told Mr Wright that, as he was accepting under protest, they had “exhausted all avenues” and dismissed him from his post in May 2019.

The employment tribunal found that Mr Wright was unfairly dismissed by Cardinal Newman, adding: “For his own reasons, Mr Kilmartin did not want the claimant to work at the school and certainly did not want him to return to his head of maths role.

“Without a potentially fair reason, the dismissal was inevitably unfair.

“No reasonable employer would have dismissed the claimant in these circumstances, particularly as the reason for dismissal amounted to victimisation.”

The tribunal also found that the school discriminated against Mr Wright based on his disability.

In a hearing on August 27 this year, the tribunal confirmed the school had agreed to pay Mr Wright £850,000 in compensation.

The school must pay the fee before 4pm on September 27.

Cardinal Newman declined to comment on the tribunal.