UK Art Teacher Banned Over ‘suggestive’ Photo Shoot With Topless Teenage Students

UK Art Teacher Banned Over ‘suggestive’ Photo Shoot With Topless Teenage Students

After being barred from teaching, a British art instructor defends her actions after being fired for allowing her female students, some as young as 15, to pose topless for what she dubbed a “art” project.

On June 10, a panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency, which examines misconduct and other issues in British schools, recommended to the Secretary of State a prohibition order barring Emma Wright from teaching in the UK indefinitely.

Wright, 41, was a teacher at Huxlow Science College in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England, until she was fired in 2018 for allowing a photo shoot in her classroom with minors posing topless.

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As explained in the document compiled by a professional conduct panel, Wright allowed one or more students at the secondary school to produce photographs featuring teenage girls holding “cigarette(s) and/or alcohol container(s)” and posing for pictures with their hands or alcohol containers covering “their otherwise naked breasts” for their art portfolios.

Other photos depicted teenagers “posing with their hand inside their underpants or in a fake masturbation stance,” “exposing their chest while wearing school uniform,” and “posing in swimsuits.”

After the school’s head of design uncovered student portfolios portraying pupils under the age of 16 in suggestive poses, school officials initiated an investigation in December 2017. Wright was fired the next year as a result of the investigation.

UK Art Teacher Banned Over ‘suggestive’ Photo Shoot With Teenage Students

Wright admitted to the Teaching Regulation Agency that she had introduced an artist to the class who specialized in “suggestive pictures.” However, as noted in the panel’s report, Wright insisted that she “told the students this did not mean for them to do suggestive pictures” and “told the pupils that she did not expect them to be naked, but to use their arm, face, or something.”

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The report concluded that despite a “low risk of repetition” of such an incident, the panel “did not find that Mrs. Wright had fully reflected on the safeguarding implications of allowing pupils to take photographs of themselves or others in a state of undress.”

Additionally, the panel determined that Wright’s actions constituted a breach of the Teachers’ Standards.

The panel found that Wright failed to “uphold public trust in the profession and maintain high standards of ethics and behaviour, within and outside school, by having regard for the need to safeguard pupils’ well-being, in accordance with statutory provisions.”

The Teachers’ Standards also call on educators to “have proper and professional regard for the ethos, policies and practices of the school in which they teach” and have “an understanding of, and always act within, the statutory frameworks which set out their professional duties and responsibilities.”

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UK Art Teacher Banned Over ‘suggestive’ Photo Shoot With Topless Teenage Students

Before her termination, Wright taught art at Huxlow, located approximately 100 miles north of London, since 2004. In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Wright reacted to the prohibition order: “I really feel very strongly about it. I am really quite upset about it. It is a position I never thought I would be in.”

“Those students were wonderful students. I have no bad feelings towards those students at all,” she added.

Calling herself a victim of “deep injustice,” Wright said she would not appeal the ruling. She now runs a care home.

While Wright said she would no longer pursue teaching, she must wait until 2024 to apply to revoke the prohibition order.