Teacher who sent topless picture to pupil banned

Kevin Lee admitted telling a male student to ‘Get your shirt off and show us what you’re made of’
24th October 2018, 4:30pm

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Teacher who sent topless picture to pupil banned

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A teacher has been banned from the profession for sending explicit messages to one student and telling his colleague he fantasised about having sex with another student.  

Former geography teacher Kevin Lee resigned from Cams Hill School in Fareham last year after an investigation into lewd messages and pictures he sent to a pupil from another school.

Mr Lee admitted sending a topless picture of himself to the boy on Snaphat and telling the student “I’m not a ladies man, I’m a gentlemen man…!”

The former teacher also told the student, from St John’s College in Southsea, to “Get your shirt off and show us what you’re made of.”

Later he asked the pupil to delete their communications after the messages and pictures started circulating publicly.

‘Exceptionally inappropriate’

A tribunal in Coventry found Mr Lee guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and said his actions fell “significantly short of the standards expected of the profession”.

They highlighted an “exceptionally inappropriate” message he sent to a colleague in 2011 - for which he received a written warning - describing his fantasies about another student.

The tribunal quoted it as saying: “Oh my god, [Pupil B] is such a hunk I’ve been looking at his huge fingers & wishing they were inside me.”

The panel ruled there was a strong public interest in banning him from teaching to protect pupils, especially given he did not seem to grasp the seriousness of his actions.

“The panel considers that public confidence in the profession could be seriously weakened if conduct such as that found against Mr Lee were not treated with the utmost seriousness,” the tribunal said in its judgment.

On Wednesday, the secretary of state’s representative upheld the panel’s recommendation to ban Mr Lee from teaching indefinitely.

“I am particularly mindful of the finding of sexual misconduct in this case and the impact that such a finding has on the reputation of the profession,” said Dawn Dandy, who signed off the decision.

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