Drama teacher who sent student naked selfies banned from teaching for life

1 May 2025, 16:03 | Updated: 1 May 2025, 16:07

A drama teacher has been banned from teaching for life after sending naked selfies to a pupil.

Megan Lanning, 36, admitted to being involved in an inappropriate relationship with a pupil while she was a performing arts and music teacher at Ripplevale School in Rochester, Kent.

The teacher and student began messaging on Instagram and talking on the phone late into the night in February 2024.

Lanning sent partially-nude selfies to the student, one in which she was “half naked showing her boobs” and in a second she did not have leggings on and “her bottom half area was covered with her hand but this could possibly be seen as her performing a sexual act”.

She said she did not receive any pictures from the pupil and did not ask for any.

The disgraced teacher reported herself to safeguarding bosses at the school in February 2024, stating she had "inappropriate feelings" for the pupil.

She admitted to having feelings for the student, and stated to the Teaching Regulation Agency Professional Conduct panel that she and the student were both feeling very “wrapped up in one another”.

Lanning said in her written submissions: “I remember at the time I just wanted to give [them] all of me and wanted [them] to think I was amazing.”

In a written statement in January 2025, Lanning admitted that her feelings towards the student were "not normal", but she did not speak to anyone out of fear for being judged.

Lanning claimed that if she had more self-awareness to help her understand her thoughts, feelings and behaviours, it would have guided her towards making better choices.

She stated that she feels sick every time she thinks about what she did now. She stated that it was not something she would ever think of doing again, and the consequences of what she did have been “so hard to bear".

She also stated that she is sorry, and she is “disgusted and repulsed” by her own actions.

The teaching regulation agency ruled that Lanning will be banned from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.