The wrong image

You’re a worried teacher. You get on well enough with the teacher in the next classroom but you’re not sure why he stays behind a locked door after school. Then one day, the door is not locked, you need to check on some detail and walk in.

Teaching: the GTC magazine, summer 2008

He’s flushed, embarrassed, and a compromising image is frozen on the computer screen. And you’re embarrassed for him, his state of mind, his relationships, how he seeswomen…Can your working relationship ever be the same?

Thankfully, using the internet to access pornography at school is a scenario that does not arise often. However, a dozen or so cases are referred to the GTC every year, in each case after employer investigations led to the teacher leaving the school, either through resignation or dismissal. Most, but not all, involve men.

Havens

But children and their parents, let alone teachers, have a right to see schools as havens from the darker side of life. Clearly, in this case a boundary has been crossed, but how serious a sanction should be applied?

‘When any case is referred to the GTC, we consider it against the code of conduct and practice,’ says GTC Registrar Alan Meyrick. ‘The code expects teachers to maintain appropriate standards of honesty and integrity. Hearing panels have found that using school equipment to view pornography clearly breaches the code.’

Probity

Internet abuse can range from one-off moments of weakness to addictive behaviour. This is reflected by the decisions made by GTC hearing panels. All panels have a teacher majority, and understand workplace pressures as well as the need for probity in educational settings. See below for how four different cases were resolved.

And, if you were the worried teacher, what would you have done?

Whatever the action – and it should at least be brought to the attention of the teacher’s manager – teachers know that internet abuse runs against the ethos of schools and the ethics and values of the profession.

Cases

Teacher A

Admitted the offence at an early stage and showed insight and remorse both to the employer and the GTC.

Decision: reprimand. This shows the behaviour was unacceptable and must not be repeated.

Teacher B

Denied that he had accessed the material until the very end of the hearing.

Decision: conditional registration order. He stays registered, but with conditions around his future use of school ICT. Breaking the conditions can, and has in the past, led to a later prohibition.

Teacher C

Visited escort agency websites in a place where pupils could see inappropriate images.

Decision: suspension order with conditions.

Teacher D

Accessed both sexual and racist material over several years, anddistributed it.

Decision: prohibition. Inappropriate material is not just of a sexual nature, and the other factors meant that this case deserved the severest sanction.