A Melsonby woman has been banned from teaching after she was jailed for engaging in sexual activity with a schoolgirl.
Aimee Jones, 36, was given an eight-month jail term in November last year after she admitted four counts of abusing a position of trust by engaging in sexual activity with a girl aged between 13 and 17 being cared for in school premises.
A teacher misconduct panel which took place earlier this month ruled that Mrs Jones should be banned from teaching indefinitely.
The panel found that “the extremely serious nature of Mrs Jones’ offences and the fact that they involved sexual activity,
sexual communication with a child and an inappropriate relationship with a child were significant factors in forming that opinion”.
Alan Meyrick, who made the final decision on behalf of the secretary of state, concluded: “This means that Mrs Aimee Jones is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
“Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegation found proved against her, I have decided that Mrs Aimee Jones shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach.”
The court heard last year that the maths teacher, who taught at a school in Darlington, had instigated sexual activity with a schoolgirl behind the back of her social worker husband.
Jones invented an adult female lover, who she said was a colleague at her school, to throw husband Philip off the scent.
She urged colleagues to lie to Philip if asked and back up her story that she was cheating with a fictitious teaching assistant.
The deception worked at first and the couple stayed together for the sake of their four-year-old son, with Mr Jones accepting she was bisexual.
But later he discovered her lover was in fact a teenage girl who she had met for sexual trysts in her car and in Hardwick Park, Sedgefield.
Mr Jones, because of his job, was duty-bound to bring the latter to the attention of the police.
It cost his wife her job and career and the humiliation of being escorted off the school premises before staff and parents.
