An art teacher has been banned from the profession indefinitely after letting pupils as young as 15 pose topless as part of a school art project.
Emma Wright, 41, was sacked after a panel found that her behaviour “amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession”. Photographs taken as part of the project included pupils wearing underwear, posing with their hands covering their breasts, simulating masturbation, and holding cigarettes or alcohol containers.
Wright, who worked at Huxlow Science College in Northamptonshire, was reported to the Teaching Regulation Agency by the department head in 2018 after they discovered the pupils’ portfolios of work. Wright was struck off after the TRA decided that she had broken safeguarding rules, a decision for which she will not be able to apply for a review until 2024, the Daily Star reports .
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Wright told the professional conduct panel, which published their outcome last week, that she had introduced a new artist to her pupils who was known for suggestive pictures and had not expected them to produce the photographs that they did. Although Wright added that she accepted she should have challenged the photos and raised it with a manager, the panel found that she “did not accept that the photographs of the pupils were inappropriate”.
The former teacher told The Sun that she felt the decision was a “deep injustice”, revealing that she had complained to Government officials about the outcome. “I have written to my MP, the union and the Education Minister regarding this,” Wright said.
“I am a good person,” she added. “I am not the person they are making out to be.” Wright went on to say that the TRA did not have “an understanding of art”, an argument which she said formed the basis of her complaint to her local MP.
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