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Teacher looked at porn websites during lessons

Pa,Alison Kershaw
Friday 07 November 2008 09:32 EST
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A teacher has been disciplined after admitting he looked at pornographic websites during lessons.

Darren Adamson, 36, also called sex phonelines from school telephones, the General Teaching Council (GTC) for England was told.

The head of English at Houghton Kepier School in Houghton le Spring, Tyne and Wear, used the school internet system to log on to camcandy.com and other sites when he should have been teaching

He also used preparation time to log on to the website and to dial "premium rate" numbers, over a two-month period last year.

A GTC professional conduct committee ruled that the case was "particularly serious as he was head of English and should have set an example and was in a position of particular trust and authority".

The ruling said: "Whilst there is no evidence that any pupils had sight of the website camcandy.com at a time when Mr Adamson had gained access to wholly inappropriate material, this was a matter of good fortune and there was clearly a risk that a pupil may have entered a room when such images were on screen."

Mr Adamson also knowingly broke the school's internet policy as he would have been reminded that accessing such sites was not allowed each time he logged on, the Times Educational Supplement reported.

Mr Adamson was not present at the hearing earlier this week, but written accounts from him and his wife said he had experienced "considerable difficulties and anxiety in his personal life".

The committee said that Mr Adamson's conduct had brought "the standing and reputation of the teaching profession into serious disrepute".

The GTC issued an order stating that Mr Adamson must not use school equipment to view sexually explicit material and must produce a report from a psychiatrist demonstrating that he was fit to teach before he returned to the classroom.

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