Impostor posing as Sheffield school principal shares pornography with pupils in online class

The head teacher of Firth Park Academy, Dean Jones, fell victim to the hoax, with several other schools in the local area believed to have also been targeted.

The explicit content, which was seen by Year 11 pupils, was filmed by a student and shared on Snapchat.

One school parent said the footage was also shared on Facebook and seen by concerned mums and dads.

She added: "My child came running into my room to show me. Not long after that the video went viral, big time.

“I always thought the school’s IT system was impossible to get in from the outside."

A spokesperson for Academies Enterprise Trust, which runs the school, said: “Firth Park Academy were made aware of this situation, and we understand other schools in the local area have also been targeted.

"We can confirm the video posted was by someone outside of the academy pretending to be the principal. A pupil then filmed this content and shared it on social media.”

It is not known which other schools have been targeted by the hoax.

The spokesperson added: “The phone of this pupil will be handed to the police as evidence. We are also working closely with our online safeguarding partner, eSafe, to identify the IP address of the person who posed as the principal, and will be sharing this with the police.

"This is completely unacceptable and we will also be reviewing our processes and practices to ensure this does not happen again.”

The school launched an investigation into the hoax on Thursday evening after being made aware of the footage circulating online by several students and families.

A letter from the school sent to parents on Friday read: "We have met with all staff this morning to demonstrate a new layer of online security we have set up, requiring each student to be individually admitted to a live lesson and preventing anyone other than the teacher presenting on screen.

“All families of any student involved in sharing social media content are being contacted, given they may be part of the police investigation.”

The Star has contacted South Yorkshire Police for further comment.

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Nancy Fielder, editor.