Members of a fitness-to-teach inquiry are considering what sanction to impose on a teacher found to have engaged in a sexual relationship with a Leaving Cert student.
The panel found the man engaged in professional misconduct and breached the Code of Conduct for Teachers.
The inquiry arose from allegations that the teacher had sexual encounters in 2018 with an 18-year-old female student at the school in which he taught.
She told a hearing last July that she and the teacher had sexual encounters four to six times between March and June 2018.
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It was also alleged he and the student exchanged inappropriate messages, many of which were of a sexually explicit nature. Among them were photos of a penis and nude photos of the complainant.
The inquiry also heard claims he sent inappropriate sexual messages, including a photo of a penis, to another Leaving Cert student at the school.
The panel has directed that no one involved can be identified.
Chairperson Clodagh O’Hara said the panel has found these allegations to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Neasa Bird, appearing for the director of the Teaching Council, said the panel’s findings demonstrated an incompatibility with the continued registration of the teacher.
She said the messaging between the teacher and the complainant amounted to an abuse of the teacher-student relationship. She said the teacher was senior and the student was less experienced in the ways of the world.
Ms Bird said the complainant was a vulnerable student who was having a difficult time before her Leaving Cert exams.
Eoin McGlinchey, appearing for the teacher, asked the panel to take into account the teacher’s inexperience, that he is “very close in age” to the complainant, and that he admitted to the evidence of both students without subjecting them to cross-examination.
Mr McGlinchey said the teacher accepts the panel’s findings and that it is likely his teaching career is finished. The teacher was not present at the hearing.
The inquiry previously heard the teacher has been registered since 2016 and taught in this particular school for five years. It heard he went on to work at another school and claims he has “an exemplary record of service in both schools”.
Nicholas Butler SC, legal assessor for the panel, said the teacher’s insight is a very important consideration and that the inquiry has heard for the first time that the teacher accepts the panel’s findings.
The panel retired to consider what sanction to impose. It will deliver its decision later this month.
