LANE NICHOLS

Hundreds of teachers have criminal convictions and many are not fit to teach, newly released figures show.

Teachers have been investigated for sexual misconduct, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, incompetence, dishonesty and viewing pornography in the past two years.

The number of complaints has jumped by about half since the Teachers Council was set up in 2002 to vet teachers and independently investigate allegations of serious misconduct.

Of the 664 teachers whose behaviour triggered complaints since November 2009, nearly 300 were convicted of criminal offences.

Fourteen were struck off the Teachers Council register for serious code-of-conduct breaches or criminal offending. In total, nearly 50 teachers were stripped of their teaching licences in the past two years alone.

High-profile cases of misbehaving teachers include:

– A female teacher became pregnant with a 17-year-old high school pupil’s child after they put the school yearbook together.

–  A male teacher was caught with more than 200 pornographic images, including a videotape of his daughter and two foreign exchange students taking showers.

– Other cases include teachers viewing bestiality, committing theft, driving drunk and abusing illicit drugs.

Read more here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/6406164/Hundreds-of-unfit-teachers-in-class

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https://hef.org.nz/getting-started-2/

and

https://hef.org.nz/exemptions/