Teacher banned over 'intimate' messages to pupils

Mr Morgan is banned from teaching indefinitely, subject to a two-year review period

A private school teacher sent "intimate" messages to two female pupils, a panel has found.

A Teaching Regulation Agency panel heard Reece Morgan worked at Seaford College in West Sussex when he exchanged "increasingly more inappropriate" emails with "Pupil A" .

According to the panel's decision, published on Tuesday, Mr Morgan later suggested to "Pupil B" in messages between them that he could have a relationship with her.

The panel banned Mr Morgan from teaching indefinitely, subject to a two-year review period.

The hearing was told Mr Morgan and Pupil A's emails "became increasingly more inappropriate over time".

In one email to the pupil, seen by the panel, he said: "You don't need any more conversations to establish your significance in my life, so just deal with the fact that you're stuck with me."

The English, classics and Latin teacher referred to himself using nicknames, including Reemo, The Morganator and Big Morge, the hearing was told.

The panel ruled the emails, sent between June and July 2019, were "inappropriate" and "intimate", but found his conduct was not sexually motivated.

The panel also heard that Mr Morgan gave Pupil A a gift during a school event outside the boarding house where he lived.

He denied this was an "intimate" act, but the panel ruled that giving a gift in those circumstances at that location was "deeply personal, such that it was intimate".

The teacher admitted he had hugged Pupil A once at a school event.

Conduct 'may have continued'

Mr Morgan began daily messaging a second female pupil, "Pupil B", in the weeks after her final term in July until October 2019.

He left the school that summer but remained employed until September 2019.

The teacher went for a coffee and walk on the beach with Pupil B that August, when he hugged her.

The hearing was told Mr Morgan admitted to a colleague he had been to visit Pupil B's parents "to level it all out" and "thought it would be suspect" to carry on contacting her without doing so.

The panel found that visiting Pupil B's parents showed that he knew his contact with her had "intimated that a relationship was possible".

The panel accepted that Mr Morgan "recognised the impact his actions had" on the pupils, but expressed concern that his conduct "may have continued" had the relationships not been disclosed to the school or the parents.

Additional reporting by PA Media