A former teacher who exchanged hundreds of text messages with a pupil has been banned from the profession.

Stephen White taught religious education at St Wilfrid’s Catholic School, in Crawley, between September 2017 and March 2023.

In January 2023, a former student reported to the school that Mr White had been texting a pupil. An internal investigation was launched and he was suspended, before being dismissed on March 20, 2023.

At a teacher misconduct hearing on March 24, Mr White was prohibited from teaching indefinitely and told he cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England until at least April 2, 2028.

Evidence presented to the panel included an email sent by Mr White to the pupil which said: “Hey Hey Hey #1. Just wanted to say a massive thank you for my card and gifts…

“Thank you for being a good friend to me, also! I will miss you tremendously, you have no idea!”

The email was signed off with “Mr. Stephen x”.

It was also found that the teacher had described the pupil as a “very special person”.

An email sent from the student to Mr White, presented at the hearing, demonstrated this. It said: “As you said to me and will say to you – ‘you are a very special person’.”

Mr White also admitted exchanging text messages of a “personal nature”, the pupil telling an investigation officer that the pair had decided to text as they “felt they were being watched by others”.

The pupil presented the officer with the text messages, in which they noted there were “upwards of 100 text message exchanges from the previous evening alone”. These included conversations about football, university, and a book.

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As well as texting, the former teacher admitted spending time alone with the student on school premises.

It was heard that a member of staff had reported to the head teacher that Mr White and the pupil had been alone together in the RE department office at 7.15am and that “it was not the first time that they had been seen alone together in that office”.

Evidence from the deputy head teacher also stated that in January 2023, the pair had been found alone together in the chapel.

Despite warnings and advice from senior staff to ensure Mr White maintained a professional distance from the student, the panel heard how he had “not taken advice seriously and dismissed concerns”.

Mr White told the panel that at the time he had not considered the concerns to be fair.

Following one occasion, when advised to be careful about his contact with the student, he sent an email to the pupil stating: “Please don’t mention it to anyone else yet until someone has spoken to you as I will get into a lot of trouble with that as I was told not to say anything.”

At the hearing, the panel found the Mr White had breached several elements of the Teachers Standards – the expectations for teacher’s professional practice and conduct – by his “repeated and continuing failure to observe proper boundaries with the pupil over a period of three years”.

It found that these breaches presented a “significant safeguarding risk” that could have had a “serious impact” on the pupil.

In his evidence, Mr White explained that he had believed at the time that there was a “righteousness” about his conduct. This was based on what he considered to be the ethos of the school, having regard to its approach to pastoral care and faith.

He stated that he had concerns for the pupil’s welfare and that this explained the context of his actions in maintaining his relationship with her.

Mr White told the panel that he had tried to raise concerns, but there was no evidence that he had raised these in a formal manner and such concerns as he had raised had largely been reactive to him being advised to limit his own contact with the student.

When evaluating the evidence, the panel found Mr White’s conduct “fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession” and felt his actions constituted conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

Mr White can apply for the prohibition order to be aside, from April 2028, however a panel will have to meet to consider whether this could be allowed. Without a successful application, Mr White remains prohibited from teaching indefinitely.