A BLACK schoolteacher wept as he told an employment tribunal he had been “abandoned” by the white community.

Emmanuel Forson, of Fronks Road, Dovercourt, told the hearing how a pupil assaulted him and another threatened to slap him in classrooms at The Harwich School.

The father-of-two began working as a maths teacher at the Dovercourt school in 2004.

He claims the school’s governors racially discriminated against him and he was unfairly dismissed.

He was suspended from the school in November 2007.

On Wednesday he told the tribunal at Bury St Edmunds how on several occasions, teachers at the Hall Lane school had not dealt with complaints he made about racism from pupils.

Records of such incidents were not properly documented, he said.

The 46-year-old told how in October last year, a Year 11 pupil assaulted him which resulted in him seeing his GP.

He said: “He grabbed my neck and twisted it badly in front of the class. This was reported to the senior management team. He [the pupil] later apologised but I saw this is to be racial assault.”

“This incident was not documented by the school. It appears The Harwich School has no concept of racism at all,” he added.

On another occasion, he told how a pupil had drawn a picture of a monkey and said ‘Sir, this is you’.

Dr Forson said the student’s misbehaviour was reported but he received no feedback and the incident was not put on his teaching file.

He said the school’s head teacher, Nigel Mountford, would ask teachers to fill out forms to report bad behaviour.

Dr Forson said he was told, “not to give out the forms like confetti.”

In another incident he alleged that when he told a pupil to stop using a mobile phone in a classroom, the pupil threatened to slap him.

“Again this incident was not recorded and no report was put on my file,” he said.

.Judge Pritchard-Witts adjourned yesterday’s hearing after Dr Forson broke down in tears, as he read his statement.

The hearing was due to continue.

Evidence is yet to be heard from The Harwich School.