Lara Simpson, who was unmasked as “Teacher F” was found to be teaching private dancing lessons to kids after convincing colleagues at a primary school she had died.
A former teacher who was teaching kids’ dance lessons despite being struck off after faking her own death has cancelled her private classes.
Lara Simpson, 26, from Thurso was unmasked as “Teacher F” – a woman who spent more than two years convincing colleagues, parents, and pupils that she was battling terminal leukaemia at a primary school in Dundee.
She told colleagues in 2021 she had been diagnosed with cancer and was starting chemotherapy before her lies escalated to eventually tricking students into believing she had died.
Despite being struck off by General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), Simpson was allowed to use a primary school in Thurso to run a new dance school for adults and children as young as three called LAS Dance Collective.
Weeks after she was unmasked and her web of lies exposed, she has cancelled her weekly adult fitness classes and her children’s sessions are no longer bookable, the Daily Mail reports.
She had also been involved with Caithness Klics, a charity which supports children who are carers, but they have since confirmed Simpson is no longer associated with them.
The con began when Lara told colleagues she had been diagnosed with cancer. She shaved her head and bought a wig to mimic the effects of treatment. She would vanish for days at a time, claiming she was in intensive care and sent detailed “health updates” while posing as her own mother.
Later, she appeared at school using crutches, a wheelchair, breathing tubes and even a prosthetic leg, alleging the cancer had spread and required an amputation.
By early 2022, Simpson falsely told colleagues that her cancer was incurable and doctors had given her just six months to live.
She also told pupils she wanted to spend her “final months” getting married and gifted a bridesmaid dress to one of her pupils.
Staff and pupils waved to an air ambulance she claimed to be travelling in, dropped off presents at a hospice where she said she was receiving care, and watched emotional video messages she circulated.
The web of lies reached a shocking climax on March 18, 2023, when Simpson, posing as her aunt, emailed school staff claiming she had died after “losing her battle with cancer”.
The ruse unravelled months later when a former colleague spotted photos of her alive and well on a local Parkrun Facebook page in Thurso.
The General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS) allowed her identity to be concealed but revealed she had been banned from classrooms. They concluded Simpson had engaged in “chronic and elaborate deception” and was “unfit to teach”.
Parents of children at the LAS Collective dance school were reportedly unaware of what had unfolded during her time as a teacher.
One former colleague said: “Everyone who knows her has been left gobsmacked and angry. For her to still be working with children is shocking.”
Simpson denied everything when approached by the Mail on Sunday, saying only: “That’s not me.”
The GTCS also said it could not comment on individual cases, but added that revealing the teacher’s identity could “undermine the fairness and integrity of the regulatory process” and “cause real harm to both children and adults”.
