Drama teacher who sent nude photos to pupil banned from classroom for life

A drama teacher who sent a pupil nude photographs of herself after becoming infatuated with them has been banned from the classroom for life.

Megan Lanning, 36, taught music and performing arts at Ripplevale School in Rochester, Kent, where she sent two sexual images to her pupil.

Ms Lanning sent one image “half naked showing her boobs” and another showing her “bottom half area covered with her hand”, a misconduct panel heard.

The disgraced teacher reported herself to safeguarding at the independent day school after admitting she had developed “inappropriate feelings” for the pupil.

“I remember at the time I just wanted to give [them] all of me and wanted [them] to think I was amazing,” she said in a statement.

She went on to admit she was “disgusted and repulsed” by sending the sexual images and said she was “living in constant fear that it will come out in the newspapers”.

“The whole thing truly feels like such lunacy to me now,” Ms Lanning told the panel. She acknowledged the impact she could have had on her family and the pupil, the panel found.

Teaching Regulation Agency panel chair Alan Wells said: “It was clear Ms Lanning was pursuing some sort of relationship and/or sexual gratification.

“She had developed feelings for a pupil at the school in respect of whom she was in a position of power and authority and had acted upon this by sending photographs of herself of a sexual nature.'

“The conduct of Ms Lanning amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.”

He added: “I have concluded that a prohibition order is proportionate and in the public interest in order to achieve the intended aims of a prohibition order.

|I have gone on to consider the matter of a review period. In this case, the panel has recommended that no provision should be made for a review period.”