Black Country music teacher who visited former student at university and got into bed with her is struck off
A former music teacher from the Black Country has been struck off after forming an "inappropriate" relationship with a former pupil.
Louis Stockton, aged 32 and from Stourbridge, has been barred from teaching after a misconduct panel found he had formed an "inappropriate" relationship with a former student of Cheltenham Ladies' College in Gloucestershire.
An investigation into Mr Stockton's actions was launched after allegations arose that he had failed to maintain professional boundaries with a pupil at Cheltenham Ladies' College, exchanged messages via Instagram and/or Snapchat, on one occasion went to a pub with the pupil, and on another stayed overnight with her in her bed.
A Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA) professional conduct panel heard that Mr Stockton had met the girl, referred to in the panel's report as Pupil A, while she was a sixth form pupil at the school, where he taught from September 2022 until October 2023.
The panel, which convened for a virtual hearing last month, heard how the contact began when Mr Stockton and five other teachers took a group of pupils and school leavers on a music trip, with Pupil A being one of those pupils.
During the trip, Mr Stockton and Pupil A were said to have become friendly and exchanged messages via Microsoft Teams.
Upon his return from the trip, Mr Stockton started an Instagram account and continued to message the pupil privately on both Instagram and Snapchat between July 15 and October 3, 2023.
The panel found that the communication "failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries", adding that the school's safeguarding guidance warns teachers against forming social media friendships with pupils or recent school leavers.
The communication continued after Pupil A left the school.
Mr Stockton, who was present for the hearing and represented by a solicitor, also admitted that in late August 2023 he had gone to the Frog and Fiddle pub in Cheltenham to meet with Pupil A and had drinks before she stayed overnight at his flat after missing the last train home.
Mr Stockton had said that Pupil A "slept on the sofa listening to music", and that he had allowed her to stay out of convenience.
The panel found that Mr Stockton's conduct in meeting Pupil A at the pub and allowing her to stay at his flat constituted a failure to maintain appropriate professional boundaries.
Mr Stockton had also admitted he visited Pupil A at her accommodation at a university in London on or around September 4, 2023, claiming that he wanted to see how she was settling in during her first weeks there.
He admitted to spending the night with her, "assuming there would be a sofa" or other "suitable place to sleep". He said he had initially "slept on the floor", but later got into bed with her.
He maintained the visit was a "platonic thing" and he had only slept on "the edge of the bed".
On September 19, 2023, another pupil reported the relationship to safeguarding staff at the school.
In a message Mr Stockton sent to Pupil A on that day, he said “if [the other pupil] tells all then I’m 100% screwed”.
It was also heard that in safeguarding meetings held on September 20 and again on October 3, Mr Stockton claimed that he had actually never met the student and that all communication had been cut off.
He "accepted" that he had not been "fully transparent" in the meetings, and that he was in a state of "professional panic".
Having found all allegations against Mr Stockton proven, the panel stopped short of recommending that he be struck off, and instead went on to recommend that the publication of the adverse findings was sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher, and would meet the public interest requirement of declaring proper standards of the profession.
However, a representative for the Secretary of State for Education overruled the decision, ruling that Mr Stockton's "dishonesty" warranted a ban from teaching to "maintain the public confidence in the profession".
During the hearing, the panel considered that Mr Stockton had demonstrated a "high level of remorse" and was "truly apologetic" for his conduct, and that his conduct was an "isolated, regrettable, lapse in judgement" by a junior teacher.
The prohibition order was imposed on January 21, barring him from teaching indefinitely.
He will not be able to apply for it to be set aside until January 29, 2028.
Decision maker Simon Blomfield, on behalf of the Education Secretary, wrote in the official TRA report: "In my judgement, the degree of insight and remorse identified by the panel means that I accept its assessment that the risk of the repetition of this behaviour is limited. I have therefore given this element some weight in reaching my decision.
"I have had to consider that the public has a high expectation of professional standards of all teachers and that the public might regard a failure to impose a prohibition order as a failure to uphold those high standards.
"A prohibition order would prevent Mr Stockton from teaching. A prohibition order would also clearly deprive the public of his contribution to the profession for the period that it is in force.
"In my judgment the panel has not placed sufficient weight on the dishonesty displayed by Mr Stockton, and the negative impact that such behaviour may have on the standing of, and public confidence in, the profession.
"After considering all of the factors in this case, including the actions Mr Stockton has already taken with regard to his insight into the proven conduct, I am of the view that a two-year review period (the statutory minimum) is sufficient and appropriate to satisfy the maintenance of public confidence in the profession."