By Marjory Inglis

OFFENDED DUNDEE parents have the right to seek formal disciplinary action against a teacher whose sexually explicit behaviour was captured on her mobile phone, according to a regulatory body.

The teacher could then face an investigation and disciplinary action.

The phone was stolen from the teacher’s handbag, left unattended at a city school.

Since then explicit images of the teacher have been viewed on phones and computers across the globe.

Many of the voyeurs are known to be pupils attending the school where the woman is a senior teacher.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland is the regulatory body for the profession and has a legal duty to investigate conduct which may call into question an individual’s suitability to be a teacher.

It can impose a range of punishments with the ultimate sanction, following appropriate proceedings, of removing a teacher’s name from the GTC’s register, excluding such a person from teaching.

The organisation’s website sets out requirements of the Professional Code for Registered Teachers in Scotland.

Under a section headed “professional integrity,” the website says, “Teachers are entitled to a private life; however they must be conscious that they are role models for their pupils and students and that young people, in particular, may be strongly influenced by the conduct of teachers whether within or outwith the classroom.”

The website specifically identifies parents as persons who can lodge such a complaint.

“Complaints can be made by parents, pupils, employers or others in the work place,” it states.

“If the complaint has not been received from a person acting in a public capacity, (an officer will be instructed) … to make such preliminary inquiries as are deemed necessary to assess the status and seriousness of the complaint and whether further inquiry is necessary.”

Those acting in a public capacity include officers central or local government, those connected to courts or representatives of the GTC.

The investigating sub-committee of the GTC decides if there is, on the face of it, a case to answer.

If so, the allegations are referred to the disciplinary sub-committee for a hearing.

The GTC’s solicitor leads the case against the teacher.

Hearings are usually in private.