Teacher 'kissed pupil, locked her in a cupboard and supplied her with drugs'

Teacher 'kissed pupil, locked her in a cupboard and supplied her with drugs' Lee Nicholson, a former physics teacher at Aston Academy in Rotherham, had an inappropriate relationship with a a pupil who he kissed and sent sexually explicit messages, a tribunal heard A teacher sent sexually explicit messages to a pupil he kissed and locked in a cupboard, a teaching tribunal heard. Lee Nicholson, a former physics teacher at Aston Academy in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, engaged in an inappropriate relationship with the pupil between 2014 and 2018, a hearing by the Teacher Regulation Agency found on August 10. A panel was told that the 39-year-old spent "excessive one-on-one time" with the girl, holding her hand and cuddling her, as the relationship developed. Nicholson would also message the pupil sexually explicit conduct, lock her in a cupboard and kiss her, it was claimed. On other occasions it was said he would also lock them both in a meeting room. In the hearing it was also said that Nicholson encouraged the pupil to take recreational drugs and gave her gifts and presents. they would meet at 7am before school began and on Saturdays in 2016, when she was preparing for her exams. South Yorkshire Police arrested Nicholson in March 2023 on suspicion of inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity. During a search of his home, officers found drugs. In April 2024, he was convicted and fined at Sheffield Magistrates' Court on four offences relating to the possession of various drugs, including cocaine, reported YorkshireLive. The school suspended Nicholson pending investigation when he was arrested. In January 2024, it commenced an internal investigation into the allegations and Nicholson left employment on April 29, 2024. Nicholson provided the pupil with a desk in the cupboard where she was locked while he was teaching younger pupils. She told the hearing that "between lessons Mr Nicholson would come and visit her in there and they would lie together on the floor and cuddle in the far left corner of the room." In messages, Nicholson allegedly told the student to use a penis-shaped lolly in a fridge "as a dildo" and encouraged her to masturbate. The student claimed that Nicholson encouraged her to explore sexually and referred to masturbation as an "experiment". He also is claimed to have encouraged her to take recreational drugs. The student told the police during their investigation: "When I was about 16 he spoke to me a lot about drugs, like different types of drugs and their effect in a very positive way, like I'm not very clued up on stuff like that anyway and he discussed them in a way with me that felt like he was encouraging me to take them." The panel heard that Nicholson told her he would "drive his car off the road" and had a "suicide note" in his drawer if anyone found out about their relationship. Decision maker Stuart Blomfield concluded that there was "no doubt whatsoever that such actions were in fundamental breach of the professional boundaries between a teacher and a child and in particular breached the absolutely core requirements of safeguarding and acting in the child's best interests and pursuing a child-centred approach". Nicholson was banned from the teaching profession indefinitely.