A MATHS teacher who bit a bouncer and brawled with police officers after getting drunk at the races has been banned from the profession.
Declan Sealy, 45, downed 10 pints on the staff day out before biting a bouncer on the thumb and being tear gassed by police officers, a disciplinary hearing was told.
A misconduct panel has now banned “reckless” Sealy from the profession for two years, reports the Daily Mail.
Sealy was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault by beating of an emergency worker and being drunk and disorderly after the drunken brawl on July 1, 2023 at Chester Races.
He was sentenced at Chester Magistrates Court in January 2024 to 30 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months. Sealy also faces 25 days rehabilitation, 200 hours of unpaid work per charge and £600 in compensation.
Prior to the assault he held an “unblemished” record as a maths teacher at Dixons Brooklands Academy in Wythenshawe, Manchester.
The Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA) hearing heard how Sealy had abstained from school following his “reckless” behaviour.
The school conducted an investigation into the incident and Sealy informed them that both police officers sustained cuts on their hands during the fight.
He added that he bit the bouncer’s thumb for 20 seconds and that the police sprayed him with a type of tear gas known as CS gas.
The TRA panel declared that while the scratches could be explained, the prolonged bite which only stopped when Sealy was gassed, was a “significant violent act”.
It ruled that there was no evidence the former-teacher was under extreme duress.
“Although he may have felt physically threatened at the time, it was his own actions and excessive consumption of alcohol that placed him in that position,” the hearing heard.
The level of violence was a legitimate cause for concern and risks being transferred to the classroom, the panel concluded.
Sealy had two previous convictions from 2003 and 2007. He told the panel these were similar incidents in which he had gotten into an argument after drinking alcohol.
He had informed the school of these offences but the panel found his decision to “attend the event and consume alcohol to that
extent to have been reckless.”
The prohibition order mentioned several references which were produced at the criminal trial.
One reference from the vice chairman of Didsbury Old Bedians RUFC, where Sealy coached, said he was “a figurehead to younger members of the senior team providing leadership both on and off the field.”
He was also said to be a “wonderful father” and an “upstanding member of the community” in a second reference.
The panel found Sealy to be in breach of teaching standards as his behaviour had “had an impact on the safety and/or security of
members of the public”.
He is now “prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.”
In light of his references and the “high level of insight and remorse” displayed by Sealy, he will be eligible to appeal the order in February 2028, the documents said.
