November 2010 Web Chat teacher’s 10-yr ban A TEACHER at a South Tyneside school has been banned from the classroom for a decade after sending inappropriate messages to a teenage female pupil from an online chatroom. David Peel, who was employed as a supply teacher at Harton Technology College, was escorted from the Lisle Road school within minutes of the allegations coming to light in January last year. This week he was found guilty ofunacceptable professional conduct by the General Teaching Council (GTC) and was banned from registering as a teacher for the next 10 years. The hearing in Birmingham yesterday was told that Peel – who was placed at Harton by Teaching Personnel, one of the country’s largest educational recruitment agencies – breached the agency’s child protection policy by “engaging in an inappropriate conversation on MSN Online Chat with Pupil A”. Peel admitted the charges – which relate to policy covering the making of “sexually suggestive” comments – in the letter to the GTC, claiming he was drunk at the time. The GTC said the lengthy ban was necessary, as the committee was not convinced his behaviour would not be repeated. Today Ken Gibson, headteacher at Harton, said swift action was taken when the allegations were brought to the attention of staff. He added: “David Peel was never a full-time member of staff, but was recruited as a supply teacher. “Within half an hour of the allegations coming to light, he was escorted off the premises.” Print-outs It is believed that the supply teacher, whose placement at Harton is thought to have been his first teaching job, had targeted girls from Years 10 to 11 on the social networking sites and made inappropriate comments. But his online escapades were uncovered when pupils made print-outs of the conversations and gave them to other members of staff. The GTC committee found Peel, who was employed at the school from January 2008 to March last year, had “brought the reputation and standing of the profession into serious dispute”. The panel’s chairman, Paul Bird, said: “The committee was seriously concerned about the nature of the exchanges between Mr Peel and Pupil A. “We thought that there was a serious threat to the well-being of Pupil A and there was an abuse of trust involving a pupil at a vulnerable stage of their development. “Mr Peel’s explanation that he was drunk, even if true, does not mitigate his actions and is not sufficient to remove our concerns that the same action would not be repeated in future similar circumstances. “For this reason we believe that it would not be appropriate for Mr Peel to make an early application for restoration, and that he shall not be entitled to make an application for 10 years.”