The teacher denies “grooming” the teenager on Snapchat while he was still in school
The panel is considering a decision in a fitness-to-teach inquiry that heard the teacher slept with the 18-year-old student after meeting him in a pub while he was awaiting his Leaving Cert results.
The teacher denies “grooming” the teenager on Snapchat while he was still in school and insists what happened was a “one night stand” between “consenting adults” that happened when they met by chance.
Following a five-day public inquiry, the panel’s deliberations will now take place in private and it will reconvene on a later date to confirm any decision it reaches.
The teacher, now aged 36, denies professional misconduct and breaching the teaching code of conduct in 2018.
This evening, legal assessor Frank Beatty SC advised the panel on issues of law and procedure. He told them they were the “decision makers” as to all findings of fact based on the evidence.
He reminded them that the teacher was presumed innocent and the onus of proof was on the director of the Teaching Council.
Any finding of misconduct could have “devastating consequences” for a teacher and had to be beyond reasonable doubt, he said.
The teacher has denied that she had a romantic relationship with the student in summer 2018 and exchanged photos or videos with him on Snapchat every day between June 14 and his final Leaving Cert exam, continuing while he was awaiting his results, until August 14 that year.
She is also alleged to have had a sexual encounter with him in early August, and though she accepts this took place, she maintains it was a “one-off” and did not amount to misconduct.
The director has submitted that the allegations amount to disgraceful or dishonourable professional conduct of such seriousness as to bring the profession into disrepute.
The inquiry followed a complaint by the principal of a Dublin school, after the woman’s ex-partner discovered and reported the alleged affair to her colleagues.
The ex gave evidence that the teacher made “admissions” to him about having a relationship with the student, which she denies.
The past pupil told the inquiry that apart from the single sexual encounter with the teacher, they were not romantically involved before or since and denied exchanging Snapchat messages with her. He also insisted he had no reason to tell “untruths” in an attempt to “protect” her.
The teacher gave evidence that she had only ever had “normal student-teacher contact” with the teenager while he was at school.
In early August, she bumped into him in a pub while she was out with friends. They chatted alone and the conversation became “flirty,” she said.
“I don’t know who suggested it but we left together,” she said. “We stayed the night in the hotel. We had sex in the room…and then the next morning when I woke I was like, oh God, I need to get out of here, and left,” she said.
She said she had no contact at all with the former student after that. She had bought a house with her partner at the time and the relationship breakdown became bitter and toxic, she said.
Her lawyer maintained that her “jilted” partner had “motive” to subsequently tell her colleagues she was having an “affair” with the former student.
She believed he might have “fabricated” evidence of Snapchat messages with the teenager, as well as a diary in which she allegedly professed “love” for the former student.
Counsel for the director said teachers had to use judgement on where to set boundaries with past students. There was a “power imbalance” with this student, it was argued.
Stock photo: Getty
News in 90 Seconds – September 22nd