The reaction came after a BBC investigation reported that at least 959 teachers and school staff have been accused of having a relationship with a pupil in the last five years.
Based on Freedom of Information responses from 137 local authorities by BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme, the investigation said police charges were laid in at least 254 cases.
However, it admits that it is unclear how many of these charges led to a prosecution or conviction.
The FoI requests asked how many staff were “suspended, disciplined, or dismissed after being accused of having some form of sexual relationship with a student”.
Reacting to the reports this week, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, stressed that the “overwhelming majority of the cases referred to the NASUWT turnout to be false allegations”. The union has been collecting statistics on false and malicious allegations against teachers since 1991.
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