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Teacher leaves parents shocked after accidentally playing sex worker's TED talk during revision evening

Pupils and parents hear words 'I want to talk about sex for money' from phone

Eleanor Busby
Education Correspondent
Friday 01 February 2019 14:41 EST
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The incident happened at Harris Purley Academy in Croydon
The incident happened at Harris Purley Academy in Croydon (Google Street View)

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A teacher accidentally played a TED talk from a sex worker in front of a packed hall of parents and children during a GCSE revision evening.

“I want to talk about sex for money”, a female voice said from the male teacher’s phone at Harris Purley Academy in Croydon.

A father of a Year 11 pupil at the school told The Independent parents had been left “upset” and “surprised” by the incident - which took place during a recent evening talk on GCSE revision.

He added that the headteacher's "face turn to thunder" and that parents "were all obviously disgusted and upset that our children were exposed to filth."

The teacher, he said, "quickly turned his phone off and put it in his pocket - turned very red and started sweating as all the parents and children stared at him."

The parents had been attending the secondary school with their children to learn vital tips on how best to prepare for this summer’s exams.

But the evening was temporarily disrupted when a lecture on sex work blared out of the phone of one of the teachers sitting at the back of the school hall.

The teacher is understood to have been scrolling through his phone and looking at the TED website during the GCSE presentation, when he accidentally pressed play on a lecture on sex workers.

Harris Federation, which runs the academy in south London, has been approached for a comment.

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