Unprofessional behaviour sets a terrible example for teachers and undermines the essence of what teaching is all about. Parents send their kids to us hoping we can help make them safe and take care of them. When teachers break that trust and cross the line of professional standards there must be consequences befitting the crime.
To get a three-month suspension for kissing a student is a disgrace that cheapens the entire teaching profession:
Emma Walpole, 28, had accepted lifts from three of her year 13 pupils — aged 17 or 18 — and made sexually provocative comments to one during the journey. She invited another into her home where she tried to give him alcohol and kiss him.
She admitted unacceptable professional conduct. In a ruling published by the General Teaching Council, the committee said that Miss Walpole would be suspended for three months but felt further sanctions were not necessary as she had expressed remorse and it was felt she would not pose a further threat.
The council was told that Miss Walpole, a teacher at Denstone College in Uttoxeter, Staffs, had befriended the pupils between September 2007 and June 2010.
She sent and received about 25 inappropriate text messages with one of the youngsters between May 2010 and June 2010, some of them of a sexual nature. In May 2010, she requested that he give her a lift in his car and made “sexually provocative” comments to him during the journey.
I’m glad that Miss Walpole regrets her actions and has promised not to reoffend but that doesn’t excuse her behaviour. The punishment received is tantamount to a slap on the wrist. It sends the message to other teachers that they can exploit teenagers for the barest of consequences.
Miss Walpole should consider herself very lucky. If I was on the Council I wouldn’t have been anywhere near as charitable.
Topical Teaching 