Porn name teacher told he can keep on working
Boy called ‘Dirk Peachybutt’
A DEPUTY head who gave porn star names to dozens of sixth-year pupils has kept his job.
But Graeme Cowie – who dubbed youngsters Buster F***salot and Dirk Peachybutt – will have to get a regular “report card” to prove he’s behaving.
Colleagues listened in horror as he made the offensive speech at a leavers’ assembly for the pupils at Mearns Academy in Aberdeenshire.
The 38-year-old used an online porn name generator to create smutty names for 62 students.
At a hearing in Edinburgh, the General Teaching Council for Scotland decided his antics were “entirely out of character”.
But Cowie will have to give details of the hearing to future employers and submit three report cards from the headteacher about his conduct for a year.
The disciplinary panel rejected his explanation that he thought at the back of his mind he was addressing the pupils as adults.
The panel said: “The respondent’s use of sexualised language showed over-familiarity with pupils.”
Mearns Academy headteacher David Martindale gave evidence at the hearing and said: “The pupils were lapping it up.
“Pupils were referred to as Dirk Peachybutt and Buster F***salot.
“I thought if I stopped it, pupils might get their phones out and I didn’t want to highlight it and give him legend status.”
Cowie had wept as he admitted the charges at an earlier hearing.
He said: “Emotion, ego and arrogance took over that evening.”
He had been suspended after the incident but now works as a depute rector at The Gordon Schools in Huntly.