A teacher has been banned from the classroom after touching two members of staff during a school night out, including twisting a female colleague’s nipple piercing.
Vincent Collister, who taught at Ovingham Middle School in Northumberland, was found by a professional conduct panel to have acted in a sexually motivated manner during the social event for staff.
A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found the 43-year-old approached a male colleague who was sitting on a chair and leaned over to stroke his beard.
The colleague, referred to as person A, recalled the incident, telling the panel: “Mr Collister placed his hand under my beard and pulled down, not tightly but like a stroke.”
He then moved his hand to touch the colleague’s crotch over his trousers. The panel report said the contact was brief, but the colleague was left “taken aback and shocked” by what had happened.
The panel also found that Mr Collister touched and twisted a female colleague’s nipple piercing on the same evening. Evidence presented to the panel noted that she was left feeling “awkward and embarrassed”.
After being challenged on his conduct on the night by another colleague, he said: “I just had to”.
According to evidence heard, Mr Collister also told the colleague: “If I had a beautiful woman like you at home, I would want to have sex with you all the time”.
He also sent text messages to the female colleague after the event, including an offer to meet her at a hotel, the TRA panel found.
“Mr Collister’s conduct would be likely to affect the way the teacher was viewed by the public and such behaviour would amount to misconduct that risked bringing the profession into disrepute,” the panel said.
The report added: “The panel considered that his actions, being sexual in nature, were fundamentally incompatible with being a teacher.”
The TRA also found there was a “risk of repetition”, adding Mr Collister, who denied all allegations, only showed “limited remorse”.
Mr Collister has been banned indefinitely from teaching in any school, sixth form college or children’s home in England. He can appeal the ban after two years.
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