A former Religious Education teacher at St Wilfrid’s Catholic School in Crawley has been indefinitely banned from teaching after a three-year inappropriate relationship with a pupil. The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found that Stephen White engaged in excessive out-of-hours communication and actively concealed the relationship.
Between March 2020 and March 2023, White exchanged extensive personal emails and text messages with a student, referred to as Pupil A. The TRA panel noted that White called the pupil a “very special person” and frequently referred to her as “#1”. Communications often occurred after 9 pm and at weekends. The investigation officer found “upwards of 100 text message exchanges from the previous evening alone” on the pupil's phone.
Despite receiving formal warnings from senior staff from November 2021 to limit contact, White escalated the relationship by shifting from school emails to personal texts to evade detection. He explicitly instructed the pupil to keep their communications secret, warning her not to swear to avoid IT system flags and telling her to “keep on down low”. The panel concluded this was dishonest and lacked integrity.
The relationship was uncovered in January 2023 when a former pupil reported the messaging. White was suspended and later dismissed in March 2023. The panel acknowledged his remorse but deemed his conduct a significant safeguarding risk. White is banned indefinitely from teaching in England, with eligibility to apply for a review after two years, in April 2028.
