PE teacher sacked for saying ‘send the navy’ to stop small boats entering UK

A PE teacher has been banned from teaching after writing ‘deploy the navy’ in response to a social media post about ‘illegal migrant invaders’.

Samuel Everett, who taught at Haughton Academy in Darlington, Co Durham, made a string of ‘offensive’ comments on X between December 2023 and February 2024.

This included the remarks ‘just get rid of the lot of them, if they hate this country so much they should f*** off’, in response to a post which said ‘… we have imported many more who hate the country. The only way we survive is through patriotism and understanding our history’.

A Teaching Regulation Authority panel found him guilty of unacceptable conduct after a hearing which ended last month.

He has now been banned from teaching after a review.

The PE teacher, 29, said he was a teacher and posted on X under his own name, the panel heard.

He was replying ‘Deploy the navy’ in response to a post saying ‘more boats filled with illegal migrant invaders are approaching our shores every day. Only Britain First would stop the boats and deport all illegal migrants’.

Mr Everett said he did not realise Britain First was a ‘far right organisation’ when he responded to their X post, the panel said.

The report continued: ‘The purpose of deploying the navy, in the context of the word ‘invaders’, was offensive as it implied advocating the use of military force against unarmed people in small boats.’

The panel found he had posted five other offensive comments on X.

This included one post which read: ‘There’s not an Islamist problem in our country according to some. How many times do we get called racists for being English?

‘These people come from the most intolerable and barbaric places you can imagine and think they have more rights than us. Bore off.’

Mr Everett began working at Haughton Academy as a PE teacher from 2022 until he was dismissed in June 2024 when someone raised concerns about his posts on X.

The teacher has deleted the posts and closed his account, the panel was told.

They added: ‘The panel considered that there was a significant risk that pupils could have been exposed to, or influenced by Mr Everett’s posts, having regard to the fact that they were made on a public platform.

‘The panel therefore concluded that Mr Everett’s conduct amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.’

However the panel recommended he be allowed to continue teaching, saying he was remorseful and was in a successful placement at another school.

But decision-maker Marc Cavey, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, diagreed and ruled that Mr Everett should be barred from teaching for life.

The PE teacher can apply for the ban to be lifted after two years.

Mr Cavey found: ‘In this case, and while noting the evidence of insight and remorse found by the panel, I have placed considerable weight on the seriousness of the misconduct that it has found, which included a teacher engaging in offensive dialogue on a public social media platform thereby demonstrating a lack of tolerance and a lack of respect for the rights and beliefs of others.

‘I have also placed considerable weight on the likely negative impact of this behaviour on the reputation of the profession.

‘I have also noted the panel’s findings that Mr Everett’s behaviour was deliberate and that there was no evidence that he was acting under duress.

‘In my judgment the panel has, in making its recommendation that a prohibition order should not be imposed, failed to give sufficient weight to these factors.’

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