Sussex teacher who kissed a schoolboy is banned indefinitely after conduct hearing

Rebecca Betteridge, 33 – who taught at a school in Crawley – was accused of kissing a boy of secondary school age and engaging in inappropriate conversations via text messages and her personal email address.

A professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency met in March. Miss Betteridge was not present and was not represented for the hearing, which took place in public and was recorded.

A report from the hearing, published on the government website, read: “The panel considered the allegations set out in the notice of hearing dated December 20, 2023.

“It was alleged that Miss Betteridge was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute."

The report noted that the teacher’s conduct ‘constituted a criminal offence’ – for which ‘she accepted a caution’.

The report added: “Miss Betteridge admitted all of the allegations and that she was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

"The panel noted it could not deem evidence of the caution to be conclusive evidence of the facts referred to in the caution, but it carried significant weight in the panel’s consideration.”

The decision maker, Marc Cavey – on behalf of the Secretary of State – ‘placed weight’ on the panel’s comments ‘concerning the degree of insight or remorse’ demonstrated by Miss Betteridge, the ‘mitigating circumstances’, as well as her ‘previous good history and contribution’ to the education sector.

He added: “I have also noted the panel’s comments regarding the amount of time that has passed since the events under consideration took place.

“However, I have also had to take into account the very serious nature of the misconduct found by the panel, including sexually motivated behaviour which resulted in a police caution.

"It is my judgment that such behaviour on the part of a teacher constitutes a grave abuse of trust and has the potential to have a deeply damaging effect on the standing of the teaching profession.

"Therefore, given the seriousness of the misconduct found it is, in my view, necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.

"In light of these considerations, and balancing the mitigating factors in this case with the serious nature of Miss Betteridge’s misconduct, I consider that a two-year review period is required to satisfy the maintenance of public confidence in the profession.”

This means that Miss Betteridge is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. She may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until March 22 2026, two years from the date of this order at the earliest, the report noted.

The report added: “Miss Betteridge has a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days from the date she is given notice of this order.”