A teacher in Britain has been banned from handling classes after getting caught watching porn from his laptop while in school in May 2019. The Teaching Regulation Agency panel has placed a classroom ban on Peter Drake, 57, until at least 2025 for his “extremely unprofessional” behavior.
Drake taught science at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham, Northumberland for almost 30 years. His online sexual activity was flagged by the school’s IT system as he was using his school laptop searching for sexual material for a period of three months.
The IT system exposed his visits to multiple pornographic websites such as PlayNaughty.com days before his suspension. Aside from this, he was also found to have been sending sexual messages to teenage girls, Chronicle Live reported.
In one of his messages with a 19-year-old, Drake wrote: “‘I have lots of scenarios – you want the role of a younger girl for an older man or something you would like to put forward to me?”
Although most of Drake’s online sexual activity took place outside of the school, some were flagged while he was supposed to be fulfilling his duties as a teacher. Drake was suspended in May 2019 after police were called to the school. He quit his position a day after his suspension, Daily Star reported.
According to a report from the hearing stated: "Whilst an isolated episode in the context of Mr Drake's career as a whole, the conduct in question persisted for several months. Within that time, Mr Drake's inappropriate activity was prolific.
"Certain sites accessed, some of the searches undertaken and aspects of the chat room activity were very concerning and called into question Mr Drake's professionalism and judgement."
At the virtual hearing, Drake admitted unacceptable professional conduct for "sexually motivated" behavior. His defense argued that he had shown regret for his actions and the panel agreed he was an indeed an “experienced teacher who had an otherwise good record.”
Nevertheless, the panel came to a definite conclusion that Drake was in a position of responsibility but had failed in his duties. His conduct was of a sexual nature and was motivated by a desire to seek sexual gratification.
Should he seek a return to his profession, he can have the panel review his status only after 2025.
