Facebook sex teacher Lindsay Black struck off by tribunal Published duration 6 November 2013

image copyright Wales News Service image caption Lindsay Black told the boy she dreamed about performing a sex act with him

A female drama teacher has been banned from teaching after asking a pupil for sex.

Lindsay Black, 28, sent texts, emails and Facebook messages to the boy, 17, who had played a role in a school production.

She asked him to meet up for sex after class at St Joseph's Roman Catholic High School, Newport.

The disciplinary panel in Cardiff heard she had "inappropriate and sexually explicit" talks with other pupils.

Miss Black asked her sixth form class "Who's a virgin?" and made pupils stand-up if they had not had sex.

She also played a game called "I have never" with the pupils where she would ask them if they had performed sex acts.

The hearing was told Miss Black then encouraged the teenagers to mime sex acts in class.

'Fantasised'

The schoolboy, known as Pupil A, showed other pupils text messages from Miss Black as he rehearsed.

image copyright Wales News Service image caption Lindsay Black asked pupils to mime sex acts

English teacher Abigail Watts said: "I heard comments from other pupils about Miss Black liking pupils and I asked what this meant.

"They said she had been Facebook messaging Pupil A - she told him she had a dream about them having sex.

"They had not met up but they had been talking about it."

Trained actress Miss Black met the teenager while working on maternity cover at the school.

She contacted him on Facebook and asked about his coursework, then began sending him messages talking about sex and alcohol.

A Professional Conduct Committee of the General Teaching Council of Wales heard she even asked the boy's girlfriend about their relationship.

The hearing was told how Miss Black would spend time in classes talking to the students about sex acts.

When Miss Black was confronted by the head of drama she told him it was just an exercise to get them into "character".

Colleague Sandra Davies said: "Pupils told me that during drama classes Miss Black would talk about sex and she turned the lessons on to a sexual theme.

"She said she wanted to cheat on her fiance once before getting married and that she fantasised about having sex on a table in the drama class."

Ms Davies added the pupils played the "I have never" game.

"She would then get the pupils to act out the acts in question," she added.

Exams affected

The hearing in Cardiff was told how the boy's academic performance had suffered as a result of the messages and he had to re-sit his AS levels.

Ms Black was interviewed by police following the allegations in 2011 but no further action was taken.

She did not attend the hearing but admitted engaging in inappropriate and sexually explicit conversations with a pupil via social networking website Facebook.

Ms Black denied talking to her class about sex and said the pupils had made up the allegations.

But the panel found she had held discussions of an "inappropriate and sexually explicit nature" with Year 12 children.

The panel found her actions amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and banned her from teaching.

Committee chairman Peter Williams said: "The conduct in question seriously affected pupils and was not an isolated lapse.

"Black's actions are fundamentally incompatible with being a registered teacher."

Paul Bennett, chair of governors at St Joseph's, said the school took allegations of unprofessional conduct "very seriously".