Supply teacher caught watching porn while he taught a class of 11-year-olds is banned from the classroom

A SUPPLY teacher has been banned from the profession after watching porn on his computer while educating a class of eleven-year-old children.

Amar Raza Hussain, who was working at Lawnswood School in Leeds at the time of the offence, brought a USB stick loaded with porn to school.

He then watched material on the USB stick while covering a colleague’s class on April 18.

Hussain was eventually caught when safeguarding software detected that pornographic material was being viewed from a memory stick on the school’s network.

The school was then notified, and was shown a pixelated image of the pornographic material he had watched.

Hussain was suspended two days later on April 20.

The supply teacher had only joined the school as supply staff four months before the incident.

A student also revealed during the investigation that Hussain had left his desk during the class – meaning that there was a risk students could have seen the porn.

At a tribunal at the National College of Training and Leadership he admitted viewing porn while teaching, bringing in the USB stick and that he had created a situation whereby pupils could have been exposed to inappropriate material.

Hussain told them he had been going through a difficult period following the death of his father.

Panel chair Fiona Tankard said: “We are that the conduct of Mr Hussain fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.

“Mr Hussain accessed pornography through the school’s network whilst teaching a class.

“Mr Hussain’s attention was diverted from teaching his pupils, therefore he was not providing them with the mutual respect and dignity that the class deserved.

“Mr Hussain also knew, or ought to have known, that viewing such images on the School’s network would be a breach of the School’s IT policy and therefore deliberately breached this policy.

“Mr Hussain also ran what the panel considered to be an unacceptable risk of the images’ being seen by pupils.”

The panel ruled that while Hussain was watching porn during class, he was not getting sexual pleasure from viewing the images in front of children.

He was struck from the teaching register indefinitely.

Ms Tankard added: “The general public would consider it neither appropriate nor acceptable to view pornography whilst at work, particularly whilst Mr Hussain was in charge of pupils in a class and should have been focused on teaching.

“Further, Mr Hussain ran the risk of the images’ being viewed by pupils.

“Therefore his conduct would be viewed negatively by the public particularly in light of the unique role that teachers can hold, potentially damaging the public perception of the profession.”

Hussain, who was not present at the hearing, was barred from applying to be reinstated to the register for the next two years.

However he can appeal the panels decision in the next 28 days.