A FORMER staff member at a North Wales college had a "vulgar" and inappropriate conversation with learners in a classroom, an education hearing was told.

Former Coleg Cambria further education teacher Christopher Randles appeared before an Education Workforce Council (EWC) fitness to practise panel.

It was alleged that he had made comments and/or hand gestures on or around May 24 last year in the presence of learners which were inappropriate in that they were offensive and/or sexual in nature.

He faced another allegation – that the facts of the allegation constitute unacceptable professional conduct – meaning conduct 'which falls short of the standard expected of a registered person'.

Mr Randles, who represented himself at the hearing at the Village Hotel in Ewloe, initially made an application for the proceedings to go ahead in private, given the nature of late documents he wished to present.

But the panel denied the request with chairman Richard Parry Jones explaining that it was felt the documents were not relevant and that Mr Randles had not provided a "compelling" reason as to why the public interest had been outweighed.

In setting out the case, EWC presenting officer Cadi Dewi told the hearing that on May 25, 2018, an employee of Coleg Cambria came across a video on social media platform Snapchat in which she recognised Mr Randles.

It had been posted to the Snapchat account of a learner showed him speaking in a classroom while making gestures which were "offensive".

The video was referred to the college's Human Resources department, which saved a copy and made a transcript.

In the transcript, the hearing was told, a student is heard asking an inappropriate question of a sexual nature – to which Mr Randles replies with a series of inappropriate and "vulgar" words.

Mr Randles, who lectured in electrical engineering, raised his concerns about the use of the video in the hearing, stating the conversation had been private and between adults.

But Eve Piffaretti, legal adviser to the panel, clarified that the conversation had not been in private as it had taken place in a college classroom.

Asked whether he admitted the allegations, Mr Randles told the panel he did not feel he was in the position to make the decision.

He was told that if he did not admit the allegations, the panel would proceed on that basis – to which he agreed.

However the hearing was told Mr Randles had made some previous admissions during investigations which followed the discovery of the video.

Joanne Freeman, HR adviser for Coleg Cambria, said she had been tasked with investigating the incident, telling the panel: “I created a transcript of the video. I would describe contents as vulgar."

She said the learners present when the video was filmed, who were aged about 20 on average, told her they had no knowledge of who had recorded it and the student whose Snapchat account it had been uploaded to did not know who had done it.

Miss Freeman described part of the investigation in which she had met Mr Randles, explaining: "In the initial meeting he was not remorseful at all.

"He denied it was him. It was not until his trade union rep pointed out it was him that he admitted it, but he didn't really show any remorse at all."

When it came to questioning Miss Freeman, Mr Randles asked her if she felt the video could have been "tampered with" during the process of it being shared on the learner's Snapchat, then via staff members to the HR department. She said she did not believe that to be the case.

He said: "That could have been copied five or six times.

"You don’t know who shot it. All students denied it and it's not the original copy.

"It has been passed around about six people from inception to HR."

Mr Randles reiterated that the learners were adults and said an inappropriate question had been raised.

He asked Miss Freeman what strategy should have been used to stop the learner's inappropriate remark, to which she said: "It was not an appropriate conversation for you to have with a learner, regardless of what age they were.

"If a student makes inappropriate comments, you need to challenge it.

“You should not be making inappropriate comments along with them."

Mr Randles is due to give his evidence to the panel on Wednesday morning.

The hearing at the Village Hotel is proceeding.