A former East Lancashire teacher found guilty of telling a pupil that he loved them and kissing them on the cheek during a camping trip has been banned from teaching indefinitely.
Simon Mumford, who had 25 years of experience and was working at Clitheroe Grammer School at the time of the allegations, faced a teaching misconduct hearing earlier this month facing allegations of behaving inappropriately with a pupil.
The decision means Mumford is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
Mr Mumford may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 2026, two years after the date of this order at the earliest.
It was made clear this is not an automatic right to have the prohibition removed.
A virtual hearing, led by Stephen Chappell and made up of Peter Ward and Bernie Whittle found they were satisfied he was “guilty of unacceptable professional conduct” and his actions “constituted behaviour which may bring the profession into disrepute.”
He faced multiple allegations, the first of which he accepted where he had organised and participated in an overnight camping trip with a pupil, referred to as Pupil A, and their older sibling to Priest’s Hole Cave in the Lake District.
Having originally suggested the pupil should go camping with their family during the Covid-19 lockdown, the conversation developed to suggest they should attend the cave with Mumford proposing he would take them himself.
Evidence given by Pupil A was that Mr Mumford had talked about how much he wanted to show them views of the cave and what it was like sleeping under the stars.
On June 18, 2021, they drove up to the cave and met the pupil's sibling there and they set up camp.
The panel found that under no circumstances should Mumford have arranged a personal camping trip and in doing so, he “had encouraged a relationship which went beyond a professional teacher-pupil relationship.”
A second allegation related to conversations with Pupil A outside of school hours, including conversations with them in person and on Microsoft Teams.
These were often not regarding physics, a subject he was head of the department of between 2013 and 2022, and often involved health and personal matters.
Despite the panel considering evidence teaching is not a nine-to-five job and it includes conversations with pupils, it was deemed inappropriate to discuss some of the circumstances outside of the school setting.
Another allegation accused Mumford kissed Pupil A on the cheek, which he did so on two occasions when leaning over and whispering ‘I love you’ into their ear.
He claimed it was done in a fatherly manner, despite originally denying it in evidence, and the panel found the conduct to be inappropriate no matter the intention.
They also proved allegations of touching Pupil A’s leg, which Mumford said if it did happen would have been by providing reassurance.
Further allegations into whether all of Mumford’s conduct was sexual were dismissed and, in evidence, Pupil A said his conduct was as a father figure and his actions were paternal rather than romantic.
Mumford said he made a “huge error of judgement” but did not do so because of any sexual motivation.
He said it was a “wholly misguided” attempt to support a pupil and he thought he could help.
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