Deputy head faces the sack after giving pupils ‘porn star’ nicknames

A DEPUTY headteacher faces being struck off after he gave lewd ‘porn star’ names to dozens of teenage pupils at a leavers’ assembly.

Graeme Cowie, who also made a sexual joke about golfer Tiger Woods during his speech, called individual sixth-formers by sordid pseudonyms such as Dirk Peachybutt and Buster F***salot as stunned teachers watched in stony silence – one of whom said it made her feel physically sick.

The popular maths and physics teacher, 38, who is thought to earn more than £60,000 and had a previously unblemished 17-year career, was reported to the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) after the event on April 29 last year. At a GTCS hearing in Edinburgh this week he admitted all the charges against him, saying his ‘ ego’ took over, but denies being unfit to teach.

Angela Wotherspoon, deputy rector at Mearns Academy in Aberdeenshire, explained that Mr Cowie had moved to another school but was invited back for the leavers’ assembly because he had spent much of his career at Mearns, which he had left just five months earlier. She said: ‘He went on to say how Pupil B had wet himself in class. I could see him cringing.’ Mrs Wotherspoon said Mr Cowie then started going through the pupils individually after feeding their names into a porn star name generator – a website which turned their real name into a sordid version of the sort used in the adult film industry. She said that he used the ‘F-word’ among other profanities. Mrs Wotherspoon said: ‘I thought I was going to be sick. I was struggling to get my head round what Graeme had just done.’

David Martindale, headteacher of Mearns Academy, said: ‘ Graeme started semi-formally but went on to say “s***e” and “b******s”, then said he was not going to keep it formal because they were leaving. He told a number

‘I was looking for cheap laughs’

of stories... one about Tiger Woods struggling to keep his number one wood in his pants.

‘Then he started saying what porn star names they’d be. The pupils were lapping it up. Pupils were referred to as Dirk Peachybutt, Buster F***salot.

‘I was anxious but I didn’t want to cause resentment by stopping it.’

Mr Cowie broke down several times during the hearing, claiming the speech was ‘the worst 15 minutes of his career’.

He said: ‘It’s very difficult for me to relive the words. At the back of my head I was no longer addressing pupils but leavers who were now adults. I was looking for cheap laughs.’

Mr Cowie admits using sexual language and acting inappropriately in front of pupils.

The hearing continues.