The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal has found a teacher guilty of serious misconduct for inviting a just graduated pupil to his home and attempting to embark on a relationship.

The conduct came to light after the teacher’s social media account was accessed by students as he had failed to set it to private.  Students could see what accounts he was following which included scantily clad women and girls.

This led to a former student raising concerns as to his behaviour 13 years previously towards her immediately after she graduated from the school.

The Tribunal found that failing to secure his social media to private was not serious misconduct, but it did amount to misconduct.

The attempted relationship with a recent pupil was found to be serious misconduct.  The teacher had since left the profession.  The teacher was censured and conditions place on him should he seek to return to teaching.

The Tribunal reminded teachers of the need to secure their social media accounts from access.  In this case there was nothing illegal about what the teacher had on his account and the students who saw it would have had to have deliberately searched to see what was there, but the failure to secure the account still amounted to misconduct.

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