A veteran teacher who sought to support a vulnerable special needs student has been permanently barred from teaching after a disciplinary tribunal found his actions enabled years of sexual abuse by his partner.
The former teacher arranged unsanctioned overnight respite care for a teenage student with Asperger’s syndrome at his home, where his partner repeatedly abused the boy over a five-year period while he was absent, offences for which the partner was later jailed.
The Teachers’ Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that despite the former teacher’s claimed good intentions, his serious breach of professional boundaries and failure to properly supervise the student created conditions that allowed the abuse to occur, demonstrating a fundamental breakdown in duty of care, while his partner — already retired — was formally censured for what the tribunal described as extremely serious misconduct carried out in a position of trust.
