Sussex private school teacher banned from the classroom after sending "intimate" emails to two female pupils

A private school teacher sent "intimate" emails to two female pupils and suggested he could have a relationship with one of them, a panel has found.

Reece Morgan was teaching English, classics and Latin at Seaford College near Petworth, West Sussex, when he began regularly emailing a girl, referred to by the panel as Pupil A.

The teacher and pupil sent dozens of emails to each other, a Teaching Regulation Agency panel heard, which "became increasingly more inappropriate over time".

In some of the messages Mr Morgan sent to Pupil A, using their personal email addresses, he said "sleep tight" and described himself and the pupil as a "dynamic duo", the hearing was told.

In one email to Pupil A seen by the panel, he said: "Reece is a tenacious f*. He's not going to let you just disappear and he will fight to keep you around.

"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."

He 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.

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

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, who had been studying for a postgraduate certificate in education while teaching, admitted he had hugged Pupil A once at a school event, but denied hugging her outside her family home when he visited to drop off a textbook on July 7.

This was two days after a senior colleague had emailed him instructing him not to stay in contact with pupils as he was leaving to move to Japan, the hearing was told.

He left the school that summer, but was still employed until September, and began messaging a second female pupil, referred to as Pupil B, in the weeks after her final term in July 2019.

The hearing was told Mr Morgan and Pupil B messaged on a daily basis on Instagram and WhatsApp between July and October that year, and the teacher had gone for a coffee and walk on the beach with her in August 2019, when he hugged her.

The hearing was told Mr Morgan had been questioned by a colleague, referred to as Colleague B, in February 2020 when Mr Morgan accepted he had been to visit Pupil B's parents "to level it all out".

Mr Morgan told Colleague B he "thought it would be suspect to carry on (contacting Pupil B) without doing so, so I went to see them. We spoke to the parents to acknowledge that there is a chemistry there, but not a forbidden fruit thing".

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 Pupil A and Pupil B", but expressed concern that his conduct "may have continued" had the relationships not been disclosed to the school or the parents.

In a written conclusion, Sarah Buxcey, on behalf of the Secretary of State, decided Mr Morgan should be banned from teaching indefinitely, subject to a two-year review period.

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