A teacher has been banned from the profession after sending sexual messages to a pupil to the point where they had felt too uncomfortable to attend school.
Andrew Bennington had taught at Scarborough Sixth Form College since September 2013, and began contacting the then-pupil in January 2024 by sending them a “wink” on an app designed to build romantic or sexual connections between adults.
As a result, the pupil had not attended college on the following Monday as it had “felt strange”.
On another occasion, when Mr Bennington, 52, was just a few feet away from Pupil A, he sent them another message on the same site. The pupil subsequently blocked him on the app.
Between November and December 2024, Mr Bennington also sent messages on Facebook saying “I’ve my iPad for general internet porn” and inviting Pupil A to the pub for drinks.
He had also asked “you 18 now?” and had sent them their profile picture that had been taken from social media.
In January 2025, the school was alerted and an internal investigation began, with Mr Bennington resigning from his position and being referred to the Teaching Regulation Agency.
During the investigation, he told the college investigator that he was embarrassed by his actions and said: “I was fishing really, to see if Former Pupil A was interested.”
The tribunal said: “The panel noted that the allegations took place outside the education setting. It affects the way Mr Bennington fulfils his teaching role, as it demonstrates a willingness to breach his position of trust and blur the teacher / pupil boundary which is an important one to protect pupils from harm.
“The panel noted that Former Pupil A had felt uncomfortable and had not wanted to attend College the day after Mr Bennington had “winked” at them on the app.”
The tribunal also found that while Mr Bennington had shown “partial insight” into his actions, he had not expressed understanding of why his conduct was wrong or shown any remorse.
“The panel considered that it was a serious matter that Mr Bennington sent a communication of a sexual nature to a pupil he taught,” the TRA said. “Once the pupil left the College, he engaged in online discussions of topics of mutual interest and his behaviour subsequently escalated with Mr Bennington sending a series of communications of a sexual nature.”
As a result, he has now been banned from teaching indefinitely and has not been given the opportunity to apply to be back on the teaching register.
