Seven-pint teacher told boys at prom that ‘the girls are gagging for it’

‘Crass stupidity’

A DRUNKEN teacher who told schoolboys that girl classmates were ‘gagging for it’ at their end-of-year prom and threatened to ‘knock out’ the headteacher has avoided being banned.

Music and drama teacher Lewis Morrison, 29, knocked back ‘six or seven pints’ at the bash at Gary Neville’s Hotel Football, near Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium, a disciplinary panel heard.

Referring to girl pupils at the school, he was overheard saying: ‘Lads, you need to go where this lot are for the after-party, they are gagging for it.’

Mr Morrison, who had already handed in his notice at Albion Academy, Salford, was filmed on mobile phones shouting and swearing. Footage was shown of Mr Morrison making a headbutt action and saying he would knock out the school principal, adding: ‘Put that on Snapchat.’ The footage was later shared widely on social media.

But he was spared a classroom ban for misconduct after the Teaching Regulation Agency ruled it was a ‘one-off’.

The panel, sitting in Coventry, heard that Mr Morrison was asked to leave the Year 11 prom on June 29, 2018. One witness told how Mr Morrison, who had taught at the school for four years, had been seen ‘sloshing around his pint and swaggering’.

A second witness said pupils had commented that Mr Morrison was drunk, to which he responded that he did not care because he was ‘leaving in a couple of weeks’.

In a written statement, Mr Morrison admitted he had drunk ‘six to seven pints of San Miguel’ but insisted: ‘I was not falling over, fighting or being sick... admittedly I had a few too many drinks.’

He denied encouraging sexual activity among pupils and claimed his comments had been ‘twisted and taken out of context’. On his threats to ‘knock out’ the head, he described it as ‘among a range of silly jokes that I have taken too far’.

Panel chairman Dr Melvyn Kershaw said: ‘His actions were those of crass stupidity, which represented a considerable misjudgment as to what was an appropriate amount to drink, and language to use, at an end-of-year prom.’

The panel concluded his actions amounted to unacceptable professional conduct but decided publication of the tribunal’s findings was enough punishment.

Dr Kershaw added: ‘There was no evidence that there were any underlying concerns regarding Mr Morrison. His behaviour, whilst undoubtedly a serious mistake, had taken place during a limited time period on one evening.’