Teacher suspended for filming children's behaviour

A teacher who secretly filmed unruly behaviour in the classroom for a television documentary was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct on Friday.

Angela Mason, of Aberdare Gardens, London, went undercover at several schools in the capital and the north east of England for the Channel 5 programme Classroom Chaos. Using a camera hidden in her handbag, she recorded a number of incidents of pupils misbehaving and disrupting lessons she covered as a supply teacher in late 2004 and early 2005.

Mrs Mason admitted carrying out the secret filming, but denied it amounted to unacceptable professional conduct, arguing that she was acting in the public interest. But at a hearing in Birmingham the (GTC), ruled the public interest defence was not strong enough to justify the breach of trust implicit in the secret filming.

Issuing the judgment, Andrew Baxter - the chair of the GTC committee - said that secretly filming students would constitute unacceptable professional conduct in all but the most exceptional circumstances.