Teacher axed for wanting sex with student

Pull your children out of school and home educate them

Teacher axed for wanting sex with student

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/2887924/Teacher-axed-for-wanting-sex-with-student

By JOHN HARTEVELT – The Press

Last updated 05:00 22/09/2009

A teacher with 15 years experience asked a pupil for sex, telling her she was “a sexy beast”.

The teacher has been deregistered and has left the country.

The pupil says she was snubbed by the teacher’s colleagues, who refused to shake her hand at a school prizegiving.

The case was revealed in a decision by the Teachers Council, which does not reveal the names and location of the people involved.

The decision said the teacher had developed a relationship with a Year 13 pupil while they were on an overseas sports trip in 2007.

“Her evidence was that for a time, at least, she had been with him alone in his room, talking until early in the morning, and that there had been some discussion about her remaining there for the night, though there was no suggestion of a physical relationship on this occasion,” the decision said.

When they got back to New Zealand, the two carried on a relationship through text messages and lunch-time meetings.

“Hey babe in all our rambling today I forgot to say how amazing it was yesterday and talking to you was an uplifting experience … I want us to do so much more … Love you XX,” one text message said.

The pupil told the council that she had felt confused about the relationship. The teacher had talked to her about his partner and his former girlfriends.

“I said I had to choose either him or God because what I was doing would end up not being in God’s will for me, if it had not already gone there,” she said.

She visited him at his home during school hours and he gave her a massage on one occasion.

“As we were driving back from his house that day, at around 3pm, he said to me that he wanted to make love to me. I kept saying ‘What?’ He kept repeating it,” she said.

The pupil said the teacher, who was a head of department, suggested that at the forthcoming school social they could get a room together.

“[She] told us that by this time she was upset and, when she was approached by another member of the school’s staff, disclosed the relationship, which led to the matter being referred to the principal,” the council decision said.

The pupil said the investigation that followed caused her stress, which may have led to a physical illness.

“And she was, to one extent or another, affected by some of the other teachers refusing to shake her hand at the end-of-year prizegiving, apparently because of what had taken place during the course of the year,” the decision said.

The teacher told the council that the relationship developed when he tried to help the pupil with issues in her home life while he was also facing problems at home.

The council said the teacher seemed to “more or less” accept the details of the pupil’s evidence.

“The [disciplinary] tribunal was inclined to the view that the relationship only fell short of a full sexual one because of the reluctance on the part of the student to allow that to happen,” the decision said.

The council censured the teacher for serious misconduct, deregistered him and ordered him to pay costs of $4000.

The man now lived overseas with his partner and their baby.