Credit: This story was first seen on The Telegraph
A teacher at one of Britain’s best private schools has been sacked for sending inappropriate messages to young girls, The Telegraph reports.
Thomas Laessing, a mathematics teacher and head of tennis at St Paul’s School’s junior department, was warned by police to stop harassing one of the youngsters who had asked him to leave her alone.
He had got hold of a young girl’s contact details from a “crew list” which he was given while working as a tutor on a sailing course.
Mr Laessing continuously harassed a girl – known only as Child A – over three months, an National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) panel found.
His repeated contact with the girl, despite her asking him to stop, led to Mr Laessing receiving a prevention of harassment Letter from the police. He also attempted to contact the girl’s friends on social media.
The NCTL panel found that Mr Laessing’s conduct was of a ‘serious nature’ and bought the profession into disrepute.
Its panel outcome said the teacher ‘made inappropriate telephone, text message and social media contact with children’.
A spokesman for St Paul’s School said the school is “fully committed to ensuring that our standard of safeguarding provision is of the highest level”.
They went on: “Working closely with the police and the LADO, Mr Laessing was dismissed following allegations which related to conduct outside of school. None of the allegations were relating to any pupils at St Paul’s. The School, acting in accordance with employment law and in line with the School’s statutory safeguarding procedures, passed the matter onto the NCTL.”