My 'teenage gay porn' novel, by the teacher they called Miss Rusty

AN English teacher in West Yorkshire who was sacked after she wrote a racy novel about her pupils believed she was "innovative", an employment tribunal heard today.

Leonora Rustamova, 40, who was known as Miss Rusty to her pupils, lost her job after her novel detailed teenage fantasies, violence and a criminal drug den.

Her sacking from Calder High School, near Hebden Bridge, prompted demonstrations by pupils and a campaign by parents to have her reinstated.

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The book, which is peppered with expletives, names several teachers and features Year 11 pupils - all real students and referred to as Miss Rusty's favourites.

One pupil is referred to as fantasising and flirting with Mrs Rustamova.

The story - Stop! Don't Read This! - appeared on a self-publishing website before it was removed.

Mrs Rustamova taught for more than 11 years before she lost her job in May 2009. She claims she was unfairly dismissed.

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In her statement to the tribunal, she described how she had started working with the group of 13 boys, part of a programme called the Construction Academy, described as "one of the most difficult and unteachable groups one could come across".

She said one teacher had warned her they were "overly racist, violent and misogynistic in their presentation in school and their wider community at the time, they were in regular trouble with the police".

Before she started teaching the class, known as the Commie Boys, in 2007 she said she was warned by one of the pupils in a corridor: "We've got you for English in September and we're gonna break you."

But she said: "It was a fantastic experience working with this group, developing them and their attitudes and seeing all but one successfully avoid being expelled and seeing some of them into college."

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Her success, she said, was down to giving the boys extra lessons, incentives, extra reading lessons, revision lessons and by writing this book with them. For one of the boys, it was the first book he had ever read.

The book was about a group of five year 11 students who discover a criminal drug den beneath the school.

It featured students flirting with teachers and two boys being as gorgeous as "two Mr Gay UK finalists". There was also a hint at drug use.

One pupil was described as fantasising and flirting with Miss Rusty, while she says she would do anything for a smile from another.

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She writes: "It's getting harder and harder to see them just as kids."

Later she describes how the youngsters practise "orgasmic moans", which sound like "the soundtrack to teenage gay porn".

Jean Bradbury, vice chair of governors at the school, told the hearing in Leeds today: "The book brought the school into disrepute, in large part because the book was available in the public arena and the fact the school was named."

She told the hearing, the school governors were concerned about Mrs Rustamova's safeguarding responsibilities.

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She added: "We concluded that, far from feeling she had done something wrong, the majority of her evidence was how she was an excellent teacher at the forefront of her profession and she was innovative and that didn't marry with the concerns we had."