Teacher banned over inappropriate behaviour

A DISGRACED secondary school science teacher has been barred from the profession for life because of inappropriate behaviour with a pupil.

- by OLIVIER VERGNAULT [e-mail] @OliVergnault

While working at Humphry Davy School in Penzance Antony Jones exchanged messages on Facebook Messenger and set up a Facebook group with female pupils in which he made inappropriate comments, asked them for pictures of themselves, invited them out for drinks or food and told them he thought they were pretty and he missed them.

A report by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) published on May 27 determined that Mr Jones, now 59, “failed to maintain professional boundaries” between himself and the pupils between June 2019 and January 2020.

Mr Jones told one pupil he missed her, liked her company and offered to buy her drinks in a pub where she could “spend some time with your least favourite teacher”.

He asked another to send him her three favourite pictures of herself and invited her to visit him.