A British photography teacher has defended her decision to provide a vulnerable student with books containing images of drug use, sexual acts, nudity and violence. Fiona Simpson told a disciplinary panel that she did not believe in censoring art and that high school students are not small children but “young adults“.
The case was considered by the agency responsible for regulating the teaching profession in the UK. Simpson taught photography at Burlington House School in Fulham, west London – a private school for students with special educational needs. The annual fee is £51,552.
Books containing graphic images
The student was given “Diary“ by photographer Corinne Day and “Emotions & Relations“. A note bearing the first letter of the student’s name had been placed next to one of the books.
The images included photographs of a person smoking a substance from foil, injecting a substance, oral sex, a naked man and a bedroom with multiple traces of blood. According to the disciplinary panel, the issue was not with the authors themselves or with studying the history of photography, but with the way the material had been provided.
“These are not primary school pupils but young adults. They definitely need to know the history of photography and its key figures,“ Simpson said.The panel described her explanation as misguided. The decision stated that there was no evidence of adequate supervision, support or explanation of the sensitive images. According to the panel, providing such material in an unstructured manner created a significant risk to the welfare of the vulnerable student.
Touching with a book and a visit to a café
Simpson was also found responsible for physical contact with the student. Cameras showed her swinging a book or magazine that touched the upper part of his body as the two of them walked towards the classroom.
The teacher said the contact had been accidental and constituted a gesture with which she encouraged the student to continue to the lesson. However, the disciplinary panel described it as “inappropriate“ and “completely unjustified“.
A breach of safety rules was also established after Simpson took an unwell student to a café during school hours on 6 March 2023. The panel found that in this situation she had not acted in the student’s best interests.
No teaching ban
Burlington House School terminated Simpson’s employment in March 2023, during her probationary period, and reported her to the regulator in June of the same year. The hearing in the case took place between 5 and 12 October 2026.
The panel found unacceptable professional conduct and conduct bringing the teaching profession into disrepute. However, it recommended that she should not be banned from teaching, as the violations were deemed to fall within the lowest possible level of seriousness among the cases considered.
The decision stated that there was no evidence Simpson had developed a sufficient understanding of the problems with her conduct and that there was a risk of them being repeated. Publishing the findings was deemed sufficient to warn future employers and enable schools to provide the necessary supervision.
As part of the proceedings, two criminal convictions were also mentioned – for drink-driving in connection with an offence committed on 22 October 2021 and for assaulting an emergency services employee in an incident on 17 July 2023.
Sources: dailymail.com, lbc.co.uk