Disgraced science teacher, 59, set up group chat with pupils to discuss students' bodies
Antony Jones, 59, taught science at Humphry Davy School in Penzance Cornwall, when he created a Facebook Messenger group chat with a former Year 11 physics class.
A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) tribunal heard that Mr Jones set up the group chat with pupils who had left the school in 2019. In this group chat, he sent a message asking the former students, "So who was the best looking girl in your year?".
He then voted in a poll created by one of the students, picking a former pupil with whom he had exchanged several messages in a 'sexually motivated' manner, the panel found.
He had asked the student, known as pupil B, to send photographs of herself and sent several inappropriate messages, including: 'You are so photogenic! That translates to being beautiful! Hehe', and 'I thought you looked amazing last night x'.
The 59-year-old also offered to take the 16-year-old student out for lunch and coffee.
Within this group chat, Mr Jones also joined in on a joke about a former pupil measuring the size of his penis, according to the panel.
The panel also found that the science teacher told a student he was 'good at guessing sizes' of female breasts, as well as asking her about her personal life and 'classroom romances'. The panel also found he hugged another student, known as pupil C.
He also asked one student, referred to as pupil A, to "Spend some time with your least favourite teacher in a pub doing Maths?… drinks on me".
The panel concluded from all of the evidence that Mr Jones has a 'fondness' for pupil B had led to him becoming attracted to her.
The TRA said he was pursuing the 'remote prospect of a future sexual relationship' and, therefore, concluded his actions towards pupil B were sexually motivated.
About voting in the poll, Mr Jones suggested that asking who was best looking was not necessarily the same thing as asking who was the most sexually attractive.
However, the panel concluded the poll was not purely about aesthetics, but involved an element of sexual attractiveness.
The TRA also found that in the group chat, Mr Jones 'indulged in sexual jokes and comments about another pupil from their year, as well as another teacher'.
In mitigation, the panel found: 'Mr Jones had made admissions to a number of the allegations against him, and expressed a sincere apology and remorse for any pain that he had caused to anyone else by his conduct.
'He had shown some insight into the poor decision making that led to the allegations against him.
'However, the panel remained of the view that when giving evidence, Mr Jones had not shown full insight into his conduct or provided sufficient assurance that it would not be repeated should he find himself in a similar situation in future.'
Mr Jones was been banned indefinitely from teaching in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children's home in England.
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