Sacking of teacher for anti-police remarks reasonable, appeal court rules
Secretary for the civil service was entitled to sack 27-year veteran Toffee Tam and strip her of all retirement benefits, Court of Appeal says
The Hong Kong government has won an appeal against a court ruling that found a veteran teacher’s dismissal for anti-police remarks was unlawful.
Tam, who taught at the Jockey Club Government Secondary School in Kowloon Tong, previously won a judicial review over the punishment she received for insulting police officers and their families in eight “highly improper” posts on social media between June and September 2019.
The posts contained taunts suggesting officers’ wives would sleep with other men while they worked overtime handling the protests, while their children should be proud of their parents instead of fearing being bullied in school.
Tam also wrote in two comments that “rogue cops” and their families should die.
Mr Justice Russell Coleman of the Court of First Instance found that the penalty, taking into account Tam’s “unblemished conduct” in the 25 years leading up to the misconduct, was so harsh and oppressive that “its imposition must have involved some error of law”.
Justice Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor, giving the reasons on behalf of the three appeal court judges, said dismissal was within the reasonable range of penalties that could be imposed in the case given the gravity of the misconduct and the public interest involved.