A secondary schoolteacher found guilty of professional misconduct for sending a large volume of inappropriate messages to three male students is to be removed from the register of teachers by order of the High Court.
The Teaching Council sanction, described as the most serious penalty for a teacher, was confirmed on Monday by the president of the High Court, Mr Justice David Barniville.
The court heard of a booklet containing 700 pages of messages sent over several months by the male teacher to the 14-year-old students. Mr Justice Barniville made an order prohibiting anything being published that might identify the school, pupils or teacher.
Eoghan O’Sullivan, barrister for the Teaching Council, told the court the teacher had communicated with the students on the school’s Microsoft Teams platform and the messages were found to be inappropriate in terms of their content, frequency and timing.
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Mr O’Sullivan said “hundreds and hundreds of messages” had been sent between September 2022 and May 2023. He said a huge number of these were sent late at night, at weekends and during school holidays. He said the focus of the messages was initially in relation to a common interest in sport but “strayed far beyond that as time progressed”.
[ Three teachers struck off register as complaints increase by 35%Opens in new window ]
At the end of last year, a panel overseeing a fitness-to-teach inquiry of the Teaching Council found the man guilty of three counts of professional misconduct.
The panel was satisfied it was disgraceful and dishonourable conduct and it also found that while messages on the surface related to sport, some could be interpreted in a more sinister fashion and were suggestive and capable of being construed by a minor in a sexual manner.
The teacher claimed that the messages were banter or locker-room talk, but he acknowledged he should not have sent them.
Counsel said the Teaching Council panel was unimpressed by the reference to locker-room talk and there was systemic and continuous communication that was clearly inappropriate.
The messages had come to light when a parent of one of the boys contacted the school after seeing one of them.
Mr Justice Barniville also ordered that the teacher will not be eligible to reapply to be put back on the register for another three years.
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