A teacher who turned up drunk to work and texted a mum threatening to kill her boy at a boarding school for pupils with special educational needs has been banned from the profession. Terence McHenry also sent aggressive messages to the headteacher of Sheiling School in Thornbury, where he worked, and hid previous medical history, including alcohol problems, in his job application because he had received 30 rejections, a misconduct panel heard.
The texts made the head of the independent school feel “threatened and uneasy due to the unpredictable behaviour of Mr McHenry which over time had become increasingly hostile”. A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel barred him from the profession indefinitely with a minimum five-year review period after finding his conduct amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring teaching into disrepute.
Mr McHenry, 53, who did not attend the two-day hearing earlier this month and was not represented, attended work while unfit and/or under the influence of alcohol on August 30, 2019, and also previously on February 11, 2015, while a teacher at King’s College, Taunton. He failed to disclose relevant issues on pre-employment medical questionnaires to both schools, which amounted to dishonesty and a lack of integrity, the panel ruled.
