BRUSSELS (Brussels Morning) – The LUCA School of Arts has ended its collaboration with a teacher after reports were spread about him. He was accused of transgressive behaviour. The teacher has been inactive since the beginning of last month. “Despite contacts with the previous employer and the sources of the allegations, the university did not obtain any reassuring clarity.”
Early in the previous month there was concern at the LUCA School of Arts as reports surfaced that a teacher had a history of transgressive behaviour at his previous employer, Kingston University in London.
LUCA then contacted Kingston University. “According to them, there was nothing wrong with it,” the LUCA spokesperson said at the time. The teacher was temporarily banned from teaching while the case was being investigated.
Today, the Schaerbeek educational institution announces that it has ended its collaboration with the teacher. “Despite contacts with the previous employer and sources of the allegations, as far as LUCA is known, the university did not obtain any reassuring clarity,” it said in a press release. “The still fledgling collaboration is being dissolved, with which LUCA School of Arts does not make any statement about the merits of the allegations.”
“If LUCA had already been aware of the allegations during the selection procedure, the university college would have first wanted to clarify any doubts about the suitability of the person concerned as a candidate teacher. In the event of undeclared doubt, LUCA would not have recruited the person concerned.”
LUCA School of Arts will not comment further on the matter. The dismissed teacher had been working there since September last year.
Hotlines
In recent weeks, more universities were confronted with transgressive behaviour. After the VUB and UGent, there were also complaints about a professor from KU Leuven. In response to the news, Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA) has indicated that he wants to focus more on hotlines for cross-border behaviour.
