Men should not become teachers, a geography teacher cleared of accusations of rape from a 14-year-old girl, has said.

Kato Harris said this week that he did not see why “any man in their right mind” would become a teacher. He said that every male teacher is seen as a “potential pervert” and potential child-abuser.

Mr Harris, 38, was accused of anally raping a 14-year-old pupil at the independent girls’ school at which he had been working.

The case went to court, where the jury took only 26 minutes to clear Mr Harris of all charges.

Speaking out for the first time since this verdict, Mr Harris told TalkRadio: “My case delivers a very strong message to men wanting to become teachers – why that is not something they should do.

“There is a narrative now...that every male employee is being viewed through the lens of being a potential pervert. Every male teacher is a potential child-abuser.”

'Lottery ticket'

He went on to draw an analogy between becoming a male teacher and buying a lottery ticket.

“If you become a male teacher, you are buying that lottery ticket, whether you like it or not. Now, you might win the £10 lottery prize – there might be a false allegation that you called a child a rude name, or swore at a child.

“You might win the £1,000 prize, where a pupil suggests that you had inappropriately touched them as passing them in the corridor. Or you might win the £1 million jackpot prize: that you took a pupil into a classroom on three separate occasions, in full view of the entire school, and anally raped them.

“Now, whatever the prize in this awful lottery, I can’t see why anyone would want to have a ticket. And you can’t be a male teacher without having a ticket...I wouldn’t want to buy that ticket, and I don’t see why any man in their right mind would want to, either.”

Mr Harris said that it is vital that schools continue to take allegations against staff seriously, and to investigate them fully. But he added that the solution was for men "only to teach boys, or not to teach at all".

Baggage

He believes that he would struggle to return to teaching, even if he had any intention to do so. “I can go back to teaching, on paper,” he said. “In reality, I won’t go back to teaching. Not only because I don’t think – with all the goodwill in the world – I don’t think any teaching recruiter would want to give me a job. Because, however innocent I am, I have baggage.”

He said that he still experiences “terrifying flashbacks and memories” of his experiences. And he has “a residual feeling of misery about everything I lost”.

But he said: “The reality is that I’m enormously grateful to have everyday problems that so many other people face, rather than the nightmarish fantasy problems that hopefully very few people will ever experience in their entire lives.”

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