Should you get sacked for one bad joke?

Stuff reports:

A long-serving school IT manager was sacked after joking to a student involved in a car crash with a cyclist that he “should have backed up and finished him off”.

Kevin Whelan had worked at Lindisfarne College for 23 years when, in August 2024, he showed two students CCTV footage of a crash on school grounds.

The footage showed a car – driven by one of the students – rounding a corner before colliding with another student on a bicycle, who suffered minor injuries and was taken to hospital.

Whelan said the student driver appeared stressed and worried he might be in trouble, so he offered to show him the footage in an effort to put his mind at ease.

While replaying the 28-second clip, Whelan remarked that the student “should have backed up and finished him off”.

The joke was in bad taste (attempt at black humour) and ill advised, especially to a student. But he had worked for the school for 23 years without incident, and dismissal seems rather harsh. I’m surprise the ERA found the dismissal justified.