Primary school teacher who asked girls in his class to go on dates banned from classroom
A primary school teacher who asked girls in her class to go on dates has been banned from her job for life.
Carl Dixon, 62, sent confidential and personalized notes to students, asking one of them for a date and touching a boy’s bottom, a panel heard.
Mr Dixon, who worked at Davies Lane Primary School near Stratford in north-east London, was also said to have pressured a pupil to hug him and asked children to join him for lunch “in conditions of confidentiality, including asking pupils to hide”, according to the Teaching Regulatory Authority.
of the panel judgment He said he misled his employer when he applied for a job in 2018. “Have you ever been informed by the child services department or the police that you pose a risk or potential risk to children?” reveals that he answered “no” to the question.
He has denied a series of allegations that he “failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with one or more students” while at the school between November 29, 2017, and January 7, 2020.
The decision stated that the allegations included serious dishonesty, coercive behavior and sexually motivated behavior such as touching the child’s bottom.
Mr Dixon, who left the job in January 2020 and was sacked in February this year, was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
The panel found that he sent personalized and confidential notes to students during lectures, pasted notes into the back of students’ books, and then withdrew or destroyed the notes.
The panel found that Mr Dixon asked a boy, referred to as Student 9, on a date.
The handwritten note from a school assistant said two girls told her he had behaved inappropriately with students in his class by “asking girls to go on dates.”
The same girl said she “sometimes hugs people” and confirmed that she was involved in this when asked.
At the same time, a handwritten note recorded another child, Student 10, stating that Student 9 said Mr. Dixon “touched her ass.” The panel found that the allegation that Student 9 touched her bottom was proven on the balance of probabilities.
In another note from a witness, Student 10 noted that during a class party, Mr. Dixon said, “If I get a hug from Kid A, you can do anything you want.”
The Board found that the allegation that he pressured Student 9 to hug him was proven on the balance of probabilities.
“The panel found that Mr Dixon’s failure to accept responsibility for his actions over a significant period of time provided evidence of a real risk of recurrence,” the decision said.
Explaining why he was banned for life, the report added: “The panel considered that the very serious nature of the findings of Mr Dixon’s inappropriate conduct in sending confidential notes to students and engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including asking a student on a date, hugging a student and pressuring a student to hug him, outweighed the favor of not granting a review period.”
