Man made advances to a former Sussex school pupil (From The Argus)

Man made advances to a former Sussex school pupil

1:30pm Saturday 13th October 2012 in News By Peter Truman

A teacher who made sexual advances to a former pupil using the internet has been banned indefinitely from teaching.

Teaching Agency documents reveal Dr Jason Sanderson made contact with numerous pupils using Bebo, MSN and Facebook.

He contacted one 16-year-old former pupil using Facebook and sent messages asking to be in a sexual relationship with him, that they could keep a secret between them.

The boy’s mother found the content so offensive she contacted the police, who told the teacher to stop harassing the teenager.

Dr Sanderson had to leave a Church of England choir after discussing masturbation with an underage boy during practice and showed pupils inappropriate clips from the film Trainspotting.

He also called a female colleague a “stupid little girl”, insulted how she worked and shouted at her.

The incidents happened between September 2002 and December 2009 while Dr Sanderson was working at Holy Trinity Church of England School in Crawley.

A report by the panel of the Teaching Agency, which held the disciplinary meeting, said: “Dr Sanderson’s actions display a consistent pattern of behaviour which showed a disregard for school policy, professional guidance and an oral warning which were designed to ensure the safeguarding of young people, to protect Dr Sanderson and maintain the reputation of the school.

“We are concerned that Dr Sanderson’s actions as well as the pattern of his behaviour fall far short of the standards expected of the profession and have the potential to bring the reputation of the profession into serious disrepute.”

A spokesman for Holy Trinity Church said staff had been preparing to hold a disciplinary hearing when Dr Sanderson resigned.

He said: “The school welcomes the Teaching Agency judgement and will not be making further comment.”