Shutterstock/Google MapsA teacher has been banned from returning to the profession after he was found guilty of a string of allegations.
Maths teacher Joshua Brandon Lewis was working at the Carlton le Willows Academy in Nottingham at the time of the incidents, and the school’s professional conduct panel have now imposed a ‘prohibition order’ on the teacher.
The 26-year-old was employed at the school – which teaches pupils aged 11 to 18 – in 2017 straight after qualifying as a teacher, but is now banned from teaching ‘indefinitely’.
PixabayThe prohibition order bans Joshua from teaching at his current school as well as any other school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home across the country.
Some of the allegations made against him include: placing his foot above a pupil’s head; dragging a pupil along the floor; shooting staples from a staple gun at one or more pupils; and placing one or more pupils in a headlock.
And you thought Miss Trunchbull was bad.
The panel has suggested to the Secretary of State that Joshua should be subject to the order for a review period of two years, meaning Lewis won’t be able to apply for the order to be put aside until March 2022.
PexelsThe academy in Gedling, Nottinghamshire, confirmed Lewis was suspended in May 2018 and resigned shortly afterwards. The matter was then referred to the Teacher Regulation Agency after an initial investigation.
It was alleged Lewis had made derogatory remarks towards pupils including ‘blockhead’ and ‘retard’. Although the panel, which met from February 20-21, was not presented with any evidence that he had called any pupil a ‘blockhead’, based on evidence provided and a witness testimony, the panel decided on the balance of probabilities, it was likely Lewis had made derogatory remarks towards pupils.
Apparently Lewis frequently used words like ‘t*ts’ and ‘p*ssy’ in front of his students, saying things like ‘Stop p*ssying about’ or ‘Get on with your work, don’t be a p*ssy’, although these were usually not directed at individual pupils.
PexelsThe panel also considered an allegation made after a pupil described a drawing as looking like her friend’s vagina, to which Joshua replied with something along the lines of, ‘If your vagina looks like that, you’ve got a problem’, which left the pupil understandably uncomfortable. Lewis admitted to saying words to this effect when interviewed, adding that it was a ‘stupid comment’.
Considering this allegation, the panel found that his conduct was not sexually motivated.
While many of the accusations proved to be true, some turned out to be false, including a claim Lewis had said something along the lines of ‘Nice breasts’ to a student.
Following the hearing conducted by the professional conduct panel, headteacher Craig Weaver released a statement, as per Nottinghamshire Live:
This hearing comes after Carlton le Willows launched an initial investigation, in accordance with academy procedure, after concerns were raised with us. We then referred the matter ourselves to the Teacher Regulation Agency.
Whilst I do not want to comment in detail on this particular case, it is important our students, parents and staff know that we will always listen to their concerns and that we continue to demand the highest level of professionalism from all Academy staff.
Maybe during his two years prohibition order Lewis could do some reading up on ‘things not to say to pupils’.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.