A headmaster was forced to apologise today after a class of 11-year-old pupils was accidentally shown HARDCORE PORN on their classroom projector.
The Year 7 pupils arrived for an art lesson to find the X-rated images beamed on to a cinema-style screen.
Their teacher had popped out of the room for several minutes but left her laptop connected to the projector.
She returned to find her class giggling and hurridly shut down the pornography.
Two older Year 11 pupils later admitted breaking the school’s anti-porn filters and leaving the smut on screen for a prank.
But the incident at Tiverton High School in Devon upset parents and one family refused to let their child return to classes the next day.
The school, a specialist visual arts college, uses a regional internet filtering system known as South West Grid for Learning to block porn and other prohibited websites.
But headteacher Andrew Lovett said determined students would always find a way to pull pranks on their teachers.
He said: “We take eSafety very seriously at Tiverton High School and indeed the recent OFSTED report stated that students are well informed about how to keep themselves safe online.
“Our welfare team is well trained in eSafety matters and are always on hand to help any students who feel they have been affected by any online issues.
“We have robust safety-nets and filters on our school internet connections.
“South West Grid For Learning provide this system for all Devon schools and they continuously monitor and update their lists of sites and content for filtering.
“Unfortunately teenagers have always been experts at finding ways around barriers, both in the physical world and online, and regrettably instances of that can have serious repercussions, as in this instance.”
Mr Lovett insisted the images involved were not of a “depraved nature” and said the teacher removed them from the projector screen as soon as she re-entered the room.
A member of the school’s IT team was then asked to give a talk on internet safety.
The two pupils who admitted the prank spent the day having what the school described as “restorative conversations” with staff members “whose trust they breached”.
Mr Lovett, who has been in charge of the 1,300-pupil school since 2004, added: “In this day and age internet safety is a big issue.
“The teacher spoke to them about importance of reporting things that are inappropriate online. We also contacted all the parents and explained what had happened.”
