A third form student at the Berbice High School may face expulsion for striking a female teacher on Wednesday as part of a reported prank.

Reports are that the boy went up to the teacher and dealt her a blow behind the head as she stood in the corridor. He then ran away laughing but the teacher reportedly suffered a concussion as a result of the blow. Sources say that the teacher refused an apology from the boy during a meeting with his parents, and that a formal complaint was subsequently lodged with education officials in the region.

The boy has insisted that he was joking and meant the teacher no harm, but the teacher is reported to have said that she found no humour in the incident.

The boy has also maintained that it was not a serious blow. In February, a teacher at the Berbice High School was suspended for allegedly flogging 31 students in the class including girls, with a “bamboo rod” on their buttocks for not submitting assignments on time.

The teacher, Jeanne Jeffrey, was later reinstated following protest action by several students and the Parent Teachers Association, but she has been barred from promotion for two years.