Teacher banned for life after not telling school he had been sacked for touching a student

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A science teacher who failed to tell a secondary school he had been sacked from a previous job for inappropriately touching a student has been banned from teaching for life.

Kaleem Duncan, 52, didn’t disclose the incident despite having several opportunities to do so when he decided to apply for a physics teaching position at Ark Walworth Academy, in Shorncliffe Road, Walworth, in 2019.

Mr Duncan also falsely claimed to have teaching qualifications and a degree when he applied for the role and lied about having a career break due to illness.

A professional conduct panel concluded Mr Duncan had behaved dishonestly, had shown a lack of regard for safeguarding and appeared at risk of repeating his behaviour following a two day hearing on October 9 and October 10 that he failed to attend.

Mr Duncan applied for the job at the Ofsted “good” rated academy in May 2019 through the Times Educational Supplement, a teacher misconduct hearing report dated October 12 reveals.

In his application form he failed to mention he had worked at Bethnal Green Academy, now known as Mulberry Academy, between 2000 and 2015 or that he had been sacked from the school for inappropriately touching a pupil.

In an interview for the job later in May 2019, he was asked if he had been subject to any previous disciplinary action and replied that he hadn’t.

Mr Duncan eventually told Ark Walworth Academy he had worked at Bethnal Green Academy in an email filling out gaps in his employment history in June 2019. But he continued to deny there was any past disciplinary action against him that he needed to disclose to the school.

His past behaviour finally came to light when a referee he had provided emailed Ark Walworth Academy in September 2019 and informed them of the inappropriate touching incident and his dismissal from Bethnal Green Academy.

On the same day, another school confirmed to Ark Walworth Academy that Mr Duncan had worked there between 2015 and 2017, partly during a period that Mr Duncan had claimed he had taken a career break due to illness.

The school launched a formal investigation into Mr Duncan’s behaviour on the same day and he resigned two days later. It referred Mr Duncan to the Teaching Regulation Agency in December 2019.

Explaining the panel’s decision to ban Mr Dunan in a teacher misconduct outcome published on October 31, Sarah Buxcey from the Department for Education wrote: “In this case, factors mean that allowing a review period is not sufficient to achieve the aim of maintaining public confidence in the profession.

“These elements are the serious nature of the conduct, impersonating a qualified teacher, dishonesty and no insight or remorse. From what the panel have found there is a high risk of repetition and this poses a safeguarding risk.

“This means that Mr Kaleem Duncan is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.”

Pictured top: Ark Academy Walworth (Picture: Google Street View)