A teacher from Cornwall has been barred from the profession for life after having sex with a pupil. Lucy Lapthorne has been struck off from teaching indefinitely by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) after she admitted the inappropriate sexual relationship with a youngster.
A misconduct hearing found that the 37-year-old had brought the teaching profession into disrepute after admitting engaging in a sexual relationship with a pupil over several months. Not only did Mrs Lapthorne admit the allegations against her in a statement to the professional conduct panel but the hearing was also told that she had received a caution from Devon and Cornwall Police in connection with the inappropriate relationship, meaning that she accepts that she committed a crime.
The TRA said the “acts of kissing the student and having sex with that student were, by their nature, sexual” adding that “on the balance of probabilities, Mrs Lapthorne’s conduct was sexually motivated”, as CornwallLive reports.
The TRA hearing was held on June 17, 2024, and published its report in December. It found that Mrs Lapthorne accepted that “her behaviour constituted both unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the professional into disrepute”.
The panel members also found that was the case as her behaviour was in breach of the Teachers’ Standards whereby teachers must have “proper and professional regard for the ethos, policies and practices of the school in which they teach, and maintain high standards in their own attendance and punctuality and must have an understanding of, and always act within, the statutory frameworks which set out their professional duties and responsibilities”.
In her report, Sarah Buxcey from the TRA, said: “The panel was satisfied that the conduct of Mrs Lapthorne fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession. the panel was satisfied that Mrs Lapthorne was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.”
She said that Mrs Lapthorne’s actions would lead to “public confidence in the profession being seriously weakened if conduct such as that committed by Mrs Lapthorne was not treated with the utmost seriousness when regulating the conduct of the profession”.
The panel added that the conduct found against Mrs Lapthorne was outside that which could reasonably be tolerated especially with regards to the issues of safeguarding, and therefore the strongest possible sanction had to be applied.
The panel heard from the disgraced teacher about her remorse. In a written statement Mrs Lapthorne said she felt “truly ashamed” of the effect of her actions on the student in question and understands how her actions may have negatively impacted the student’s “social, emotional, mental, physical wellbeing and development”.
In her defence she said she had “grown considerably as a person and that words cannot truly express the level of her remorse, as she is deeply sorry”. She added that she is now a matured woman with a different perspective on life and she is “determined to make an indirect positive difference to children and make a positive impact on society”.
However her regrets and shame were not enough to sway the TRA and she was barred from being a teacher for life with a recommendation to that effect being made to the secretary of state for education
In her conclusion Ms Buxcey said: “Lucy Lapthorne is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved against her, I have decided that Mrs Lapthorne shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach.”