A FORMER MORAY teacher is facing a lifetime ban from working with children or protected adults after her offence was deemed too serious for a professional teaching body to fully deal with.
Dayna Dickson-Boath was convicted of sending grossly offensive or indecent messages about child sex abuse when she appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court last year.
The former Forres Academy teacher was an additional support teacher at the Moray school at the time of her offences – and in 2014 had been appointed by Moray Council as a ‘named person’ under a new scheme being introduced by the Scottish Government aimed at providing every child under the age of 18 with a ‘state guardian’.
Following her court appearance, Dickson-Boath was placed on the sex offenders register.
On Thursday her case came before the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), where Dickson-Boath neither appeared or was represented, leading the fitness to practice hearing to conclude that she had consented to being struck off.
However, because of the serious nature of the matter facing them, the panel decided to refer her case to the Scottish Government, suggesting her offence was such that she should be placed on a list of those who were unfit to work with children in the future.
Publishing the decision the GTCS panel convener Hugh Paton said the panel had decided to “exercise its discretion” in referring Dickson-Boath under section eight of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007, allowing Scottish ministers to consider if she should be barred from working with children or protected adults.
Mr Paton added that the panel decided to take that course because “the respondent engaged in inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature involving children or a protected adult”.
At the trial in Elgin the court learned that it was only when Dickson-Boath had been promoted to the post of acting guidance teacher in Elgin High School that her offences came to light and she was suspended from duties.