AN art teacher who let pupils pose topless during a lesson has been sacked.
Emma Wright, 41, permitted students as young as 15 to take partially naked pictures of themselves and others at a school in Northamptonshire.
The Teaching Regulation Agency ruled the "highly inappropriate" class had broken safeguarding rules and ordered her to be struck off.
In the photos, children dressed in underwear held alcohol or used their hands to cover their breasts.
Other images showed students making offensive gestures while wearing school uniform, smoking and posing in swimwear.
Mrs Wright was reported to the TRA after the portfolio of teenagers' work was discovered by the school's head of art and design.
READ MORE UK NEWS
My six-year-old’s teacher made her sit by herself to eat her ‘smelly’ lunch
I’ll send my kids in UNIFORM on World Book Day, it leaves me stressed & drinking
She told a panel hearing last month she had introduced a new artist to the kids which she accepted did "suggestive pictures" – but insisted she had told students this did not mean for them to create similar work.
Mrs Wright added that in her opinion the artist’s work was not sexual in nature, but she did accept that, with hindsight, she should have told the pupils their photographs were not appropriate.
Decision-maker Alan Meyrick concluded Mrs Wright had committed a serious breach of professional teaching standards, and failed to safeguard pupils' well-being.
Despite being an experienced teacher "of previous good history" who had been at the school since 2004, she was banned from the profession.
Most read in The Sun
‘DON'T BE CHEEKY' 
Fury defends Francis over BoxPark customer KO & hails ‘great right hand’
I'm a footballer who won Love Island but my fame stops me playing, says Finn Tapp
Love Island fans beg producers to step in after spotting ‘red flags’
Deborah James looks stunning in polka dots as she beams at Royal Ascot
Mr Meyrick said: "Whilst the panel was satisfied that there was a low risk of repetition, it did not find that Mrs Wright had fully reflected on the safeguarding implications of allowing pupils to take photographs of themselves or others in a state of undress.
"The risk of harm, due to the lack of safeguarding pupils, was a significant factor in forming that opinion.
"In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession."
Source: Read Full Article
