Classroom ban for teacher who sent ‘harassing’ emails
A SUPPLY teacher sent several “harassing” emails to school staff for months after being accused of grabbing two pupils, an Education Workforce Council (EWC) panel heard.
The EWC’s fitness to practise committee heard that James Got Hing Lee, who was employed by Teacher Active Agency, covered science lessons at Cynffig Comprehensive School in Bridgend for five days in January last year.
Lee was not present nor represented at the hearing, having waived his right to participate in it.
On January 26, 2022, he was alleged to have grabbed a pupil known as Child A by the arm or sleeve of his coat and “gripped” him with both hands at the top of his coat.
Another pupil, known as Child B, complained of a similar incident involving Lee the same day in which he alleged the teacher grabbed him by the coat over the top of his arms and turned him so his back was against a cabinet.
Altogether Lee faced seven allegations.
The committee found the two allegations regarding the “inappropriate physical contact” with the children were not proven but the four allegations involving Lee’s “harassing” emails to the school and other bodies were proven.
They also found that the final allegation – that the proved allegations constituted unacceptable professional conduct – was proven.
The committee heard a witness statement from Lucy Dixon, a learning leader for key stage three in the school, who claimed Child A came to her to report an alleged incident.
She said she escalated the complaint to the school’s safeguarding leader. During the course of inquiries it emerged Child B had complained of a second alleged incident involving Lee.
The panel also heard a witness statement from headteacher Hannah Castle who said social services and the police were called to the school to interview both children with their parents or carers. Neither Child A nor Child B said they were hurt during the alleged incidents, she said.
Mrs Castle then alleged she and other members of staff received several emails from Lee the next day and in the months that followed.
On January 27, he was alleged to have sent an email to school staff and a member of staff at Teacher
Active in which he referred to being “bullied by lying accusations” and to “deceived rebellious children who lie”.
He also is alleged to have said how teacher shortages would not be so much of a problem if headmistresses supported their staff against false allegations and said that another child “wanted to kill at the school because of the occult electronics brainwashing him”.
He was alleged on February 9 to have sent an email to a member of staff at Teacher Active which claimed Mrs Castle was protecting “liar false-accusing criminal children”.
Between May and December he is alleged to have sent emails to various individuals and bodies, including South Wales Police, which were “inappropriate” and “intimidating” in their content and number.
In her witness statement Mrs Castle said the emails to the school became “more intense and their frequency was increasing” despite the fact Lee was sent a cease and desist letter on July 1 to make no further contact with any member of the school’s staff.
She told the panel she has “felt harassed” and that she was accused of “persecuting” Lee.
After deliberation the panel said they found the allegations of inappropriate physical contact with the children not proven as they had only received indirect accounts of the incidents from the Child A and Child B that were not verbatim, there was not contemporaneous documentation from the school such as written notes about the incidents, and the notes from the police interviews were handwritten, not verbatim, and unsigned.
In determining what disciplinary order to impose for the proven allegations committee’s chair Sheila Drayton noted Lee had had no other disciplinary or regulatory proceedings against him up until this point.
She also noted the proven allegations “did not directly involve learners” though he had “referred to pupils in terms that were highly inappropriate”.
She said he had “no insight into the harassing nature of his emails” and he showed no evidence of “regret or remorse or that he had done anything wrong”.
She also said that “even if he does think he had been treated unfairly the manner in which has responded has been unacceptable” and noted that he had continued to send inappropriate emails to the EWC and others up until the time of the hearing.
Lee received an indefinite prohibition order, banning him from the classroom.
The order will apply to all four categories he is registered under – school teacher, further education learning support worker, workbased learning practitioner, and further education teacher.
He will be able to apply after a period of two years for restoration to register and can appeal to the High Court within 28 days.