A TEACHER who worked at a Redditch school has been banned from the profession for six years after agreeing to receive cannabis for a drug dealer with an estimated street value of £20,000.
Joseph Allen, 26, started working at Trinity High School and Sixth Form in Redditch in September 2021.
A professional conduct panel heard he was cautioned by police over the matter in October 2022, but provided a “misleading explanation” to the school.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) recommended Allen be banned until 2032, after which he could apply for the prohibition order to be set aside.
During a public hearing from January 12 to 13, the panel heard Allen initially told his boss he had “done a favour” for someone he knew socially by agreeing to receive a parcel for them, and “had no knowledge of what the parcel would contain”.
However, in November 2022, police disclosed Allen had confessed in an interview to agreeing to receive the parcel on behalf of a drug dealer the previous May, and that he knew it would contain cannabis.
Allen resigned his post after admitting to his headteacher he fabricated his account of what had happened, and was referred by the school to the TRA.
The panel noted that the incident did not take place within the school environment and there was no evidence to suggest that Allen had ever brought cannabis to the school.
However, the panel considered that being concerned in the importation of a significant volume of a controlled drug whilst employed as a teacher, potentially created a risk given the involvement in serious criminal activity.
The panel said that this activity was directly relevant to the way that Allen fulfilled his role as a teacher.
It noted that he had only recently qualified as a teacher at the time of the incident and therefore there was limited information that it could rely upon with regard to his contribution to the teaching profession.
The panel however took into account a witness referred to him as a “well-regarded” teacher.
Decision maker David Oatley said he placed considerable weight on the panel’s comments concerning the serious nature of the misconduct and its potential impact on pupils, resulting in being banned from teaching.
He said: “In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.
“A published decision, in light of the circumstances in this case, that is not backed up by insight and full remorse, does not in my view satisfy the public interest requirement concerning public confidence in the profession.”
