IT teacher, 28, spent night with vulnerable schoolboy after prom
A TEACHER who took a ‘vulnerable’ pupil back to her hotel room after a school prom may be struck off over her ‘unacceptable professional conduct’.
Rebecca lacey, 28, was seen dancing with teenage pupils at the event and hugging them goodbye, before she allowed one of them to stay the night with her, a professional conduct panel heard.
The IT teacher is accused of being ‘ overfamiliar’ with the unnamed year 11 student, but is not alleged to have had any sexual contact with him.
she insists she took him in because she feared for his ‘safety and wellbeing’, and they spent the night talking about ‘family issues’ before she dropped him off near his home the next day.
lacey, who taught at Downend school in Bristol for five years, did not report the incident and denied it three times when quizzed by her headteacher. However she was suspended when the allegations surfaced and resigned after the school’s investigation into the matter.
she has now admitted to behaving inappropriately at the prom in the summer of 2014.
last week lacey appeared before a panel from the National College for Training and leadership. It heard she allowed the ‘vulnerable’ teenager – known as ‘Pupil a’ – and other students to hug her goodbye on the night of prom. she also danced with the 15 and 16-year-olds, and photographs were taken showing pupils with their hands around her waist.
a report to the panel said: ‘she was aware that he was a vulnerable student and he appeared to be in a bad state of mind on the evening of the prom.
‘He was being influenced by other pupils to drink alcohol and take drugs after the prom event.
‘Her motivation was to keep him safe from harm, and she was worried that if he left the prom event with the pupils who were influencing him that something terrible may have happened.’
However, it added that whatever her motivation, she had made a ‘gross error of judgment’.
‘That failing is aggravated by her failure to volunteer the following day what had occurred and her initial denials when questioned,’ it said.
‘she clearly failed to observe the professional boundaries that should, at all times, govern the relationship between a teacher and pupil.’ The panel concluded lacey’s behaviour constituted ‘unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute’.
It also found the teacher had misguided her pupils when it came to their GCSE ICT exam.
as a result, 50 students had their coursework disqualified by exam board OCR – meaning none of them received the qualification they had been studying for.
students taught by lacey took to the online forum ratemyteacher.com to criticise her teaching methods.
One wrote: ‘Her help is to not help you deal with ICT but more or less just do it for you ... literally. she seems to care more about gossip than teaching a lesson. she isn’t very nice either, you’d be lucky to get on her good side.’
lacey said she had acted ‘innocently’ with regards to the breached exam regulation, but admitted it was a case of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’.
The ambitious teacher said her career was ‘the most important thing’ in her life and that she wanted to continue working in teaching.
No further action will be taken until the panel’s notice comes before Education secretary Nicky Morgan. last night Downend headteacher will Roberts said his former employee’s conduct was ‘entirely unacceptable’.
He said that student safety is of ‘paramount importance’ to the co-educational academy, whose former pupils include Business secretary sajid Javid, adding: ‘Teachers hold a position of trust, and must observe proper professional boundaries in their work with students.
‘we will continue to do everything we can to provide a safe environment for students.’
‘Gross error of judgment’