A chemistry teacher on a school trip to Cuba had drunken sex with a diving instructor whilst supposedly looking after pupils, a conduct hearing was told. The case has brought sharply into the focus the need for all staff to ensure diligence in carrying out their duties, especially in terms of supervising students during evenings and free time whilst on school trips.
In banning her, the panel ruled she had overstepped her "professional boundaries", clearly defining the need for staff to ensure their conduct around students is of the highest order as stringent penalties and serious career ramifications await lapses such as this one.
Hayley Dimmock, 28, drank at a party and went to a diving instructor's room to have sex instead of making sure pupils were safely back in their rooms as her role on the trip required. Two members of staff passing the room, which was below the student accommodation, were able to see what was happening through a gap in the curtains and had to "prevent a group of students walking near the room".
The National College for Teaching heard concerns had been voiced about her behaviour during a trip to Cuba in 2014, after which Ms Dimmock was dismissed by the school.
Ms Dimmock denied acting inappropriately with a student but did say having sexual relations with a diving instructor was "wrong", but the panel banned her indefinitely from teaching with leave to apply to be reinstated after three years, citing a "clear failure to safeguard and supervise students under her care" and the fact she caused "students being exposed to or influenced by her inappropriate behaviour in a harmful way.". The panel had also heard that Ms Dimmock had spent a "considerable time alone" with one student, allowing him to "run his hand along her leg and inner thigh" and place his hand under her bottom.
The head of science at Bedford School, who had attended the Cuba trip, said Ms Dimmock and the student had "too much physical contact", whilst a biology teacher also "witnessed Ms Dimmock undertaking 'intimate whispers' and private conversations and general touching" with the pupil.
Banning her the panel added: "By Ms Dimmock's own admission she spent the night in the diving instructor's room and therefore could not be supervising students. The panel found that Ms Dimmock's conduct was a clear failure to safeguard and supervise students under her care. Having sexual relations whilst she was meant to be supervising students was a failure to adhere to professional boundaries."
