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Reports on sexual predator teachers compel Minister to order urgent review of teacher registration

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Education Minister Hekia Parata has finally ordered an urgent review into the cancellation of teacher registrations for those with serious convictions after it was revealed in the media that three convicted sex offenders still remain registered: (1) deputy school principal James Robertson Parker – sentenced to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of seven years after admitting to having committed 74 sex offences against 20 school boys aged 9 to 16 at the time, and dating from 1999 to 2012. He admitted five charges of sexual violation involving two of the boys. (2) Andrew Ray Loader, the Otumoetai College teacher who paid $240 to twice watch teenagers have sex and who was sentenced to 100 hours’ community work in March 2013 (the charge was laid under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003); and (3) Douglas Haora Martin, former assistant principal of Lincoln High School, who filmed up the skirts of 20 unsuspecting girls and women, pleaded guilty in January 2013, and was sentenced in April to 10 months’ home detention. All three [sexual] “predators”, as the NZ Herald refers to them, remain on the Teachers Council register.

As of 11 September 2013:

1. James Robertson Parker (Reg. No. 217428) [referred to as a ‘parasitic paedophile and “one of New Zealand’s worst paedophiles” in a TV 3 News report], is recorded on the Teachers Council website as holding Full Teacher Registration with a practicing certificate that will expire on 5 Oct 2014. The Annotation states “Referred to the Disciplinary Tribunal”. Parker was deputy principal of Pamapuria Primary, Northland when he was first charged with sexual offences against schoolboys.  Despite over a year ago admitting “guilty” to the 74 sex charges relating to sleepovers with boys at his Awanui farm between 1999 and 2012 (the court was told the charges related to upwards of 300 offences) he retains Full Registration.

2. Andrew Ray Loader (Reg. No. 131751) is listed as holding Full Teacher Registration with a “Practicing Certificate” that will expire on 22 September 2015. An “Annotation” states that he “Voluntarily agreed not to teach pending completion of conduct investigation”. The only thing stopping his return to the classroom is that he has “voluntarily agreed” to stop teaching. Therefore despite conviction he is still officially recorded as retaining full teacher registration.

3. Douglas Haora Martin (Reg. No. 133887) is listed as holding Full Teacher Registration with a practicing certificate that expired on 13 April 2013. The Annotation states “Referred to the Disciplinary Tribunal”.

As the NZ Herald reported on Sunday 8 September:

The Teachers Council maintains the register of teachers, which notes any disciplinary action taken. Teachers seriously sanctioned remain on the register with the words “cancelled” and “censured” beside their names – but not Parker, Loader and Martin. They are listed as having full registration.

The council’s director, Peter Lind, is overseas and didn’t comment, but a spokesman said it took time and “due process” for teachers to be deregistered.

It is more than a year since Parker’s August 2012 guilty plea to offending against boys, and three weeks have passed since he was sentenced to preventive detention on 74 sex charges.

The Teachers Council’s complaints assessment committee waited until Parker’s sentencing notes were available before referring him to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal, which has the power to cancel his registration – but hasn’t yet acted.

Manager of teacher practice Andrew Greig said: “It is important that due process is followed and that natural justice occurs, which is why these processes do take time.”

Only the Disciplinary Tribunal can remove a teacher from the register, and only once the complaints assessment committee has investigated.

Greig said Parker was referred to the tribunal as soon as his sentencing notes were available. “Because the tribunal is able to use the sentencing notes and witness statements as evidence, it means that witnesses do not have to be called before the tribunal.

In the Far North, Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngati Kahu chief executive Anahera Herbert-Graves reacted angrily to the news James Parker was still a registered teacher. “You’re kidding? What bastards. Honestly, I just don’t know where the hell their heads are.”

Post Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts said parts of the discipline and deregistration process “absolutely” needed refinement. “‘If somebody pleads guilty there should be a fast-track process.

Sources

Predators still on Teachers Council Register

By Kathryn Powley. Sept 8, 2013

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11121378

Community work for voyeur teacher

By Sandra Conchie. Mar 16, 2013

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11093674

James Parker a ‘parasitic paedophile’

TV 3 Report. Wednesday 12 June 2013

http://www.3news.co.nz/James-Parker-a-parasitic-paedophile/tabid/1771/articleID/301196/Default.aspx

Radio NZ Morning Report. (Monday, 9 September)

The Teachers’ Council says it will meet as soon as possible with the Ministry of Education following revelations teachers, including paedophiles, remain registered even after pleading guilty to dangerous crimes…..

For full report go to:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2568576/unions-says-deregistration-of-dangerous-teachers-needs-changing

Child abuser James Parker sentenced to preventative detention

By Matthew Theunissen  Thursday Aug 15, 2

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10912715

Urgent review of teacher registration ordered

Dominion Post Wednesday 11 September 2013 p. A2

New Zealand Teachers Council deemed ineffective

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The Teachers’ Council faces a shakeup after a review found it was ineffective in setting and enforcing standards for the profession.

The review proposes either creating a new independent body, or improving the present council to one that provides better leadership and support.

Teachers may also be subject to more regular assessments of their teaching competency, and see more emphasis placed on professional training.

The Teachers Council is an autonomous Crown entity that sets the standards for teachers and governs issues such as disciplinary action.

A review was instigated in 2010, taking into account 177 submissions, interviewing individuals and groups from throughout the education sector, considering New Zealand and international research, and looking at similar professional bodies in the health, legal, and engineering sectors.

Education Minister Hekia Parata said the council in its current structure, governance and position “can’t effectively set and enforce standards for entry, progression and professional accountability with the full support of the profession”.

“It lacks a distinctive brand or effective public voice.”

The report makes 24 recommendations within four key themes: a new professional body, the regulatory framework for teachers, the disciplinary framework, and resourcing to support a strong, professional body.

It recommends clearer separation between becoming registered as a teacher and the issuing of practising certificates, which certify the ongoing competence of teachers.

The “authority to practise teaching should be renewed regularly, as with current practising certificates”, and the review also endorses a move to postgraduate entry for school teachers.

The amount of council fees paid by teachers could also change, with its increased responsibilities.

It also recommends that, in addition to the current Limited Authority to Teach, a broader Authority to Educate be introduced to allow individuals with proven expertise to complement the teaching workforce.

A Ministerial Advisory Group has been appointed to lead consultation with the sector and the public on the proposals over the next two months.

The Teachers Council welcomed the opportunity to “constructively engage” on the possibility of becoming an independent professional body. It would be discussed at its council meeting at the end of this month.

Chairwoman Alison McAlpine said it would support qualified and registered teachers through greater professional learning opportunities.

“The 177 submissions received from the teaching profession and education sector strongly endorse a move for the Teachers Council to become an independent statutory body.”

New Zealand Educational Institute president Judith Nowotarski said the council needed strengthening and the union had been “keen on [an independent body] for some time”.

It was important the body “should be run by teachers, for teachers”, in the same way the medical council was run, she said.

Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Angela Roberts said there were contradictions in the review, such as the fact it called for a more professional body, despite wanting to create a new category of unqualified teacher.

“There are some really simple hypocrisies. I absolutely believe that they need to become independent of the Government.”

Source: The Dominion Post. Tuesday, 21 May 2013. p. A2.

Story by Jody O’Callaghan

On-line story

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/8695818/Teachers-Council-deemed-ineffective-review

Fairfax NZ Media

Paedophile easily got jobs at six New Zealand schools

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People “looked the other way” and allowed a convicted paedophile to work among children at six different schools over six years, a ministerial inquiry has found.

The report into the case of Te Rito Henry Miki, led by former ombudsman Mel Smith, was released yesterday.

It found “several factors” besides Miki’s “personal duplicity” had allowed his “relatively easy entry to teaching positions” despite dozens of criminal convictions, including for an indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy.

Education Minister Hekia Parata insisted “system failures rather than people failures” were to blame.

But Mr Smith last night said there were “both system failings and human failings” in the case.

“I identified the systems failings, the human failings and then provided opportunities to rectify those,” he said.

“There were people who knew his background and looked the other way.”

Mr Smith said he had “some concerns” that “some people knew his background but still employed him” but had been unable to confirm those.

His report said there had been a “failure of knowledgeable individuals to advise relevant authorities of Miki’s probable identity and criminal history” and a “willingness of individuals to pretend ignorance as to his real and stolen identities”.

“It just didn’t happen within the police,” he said.

“I found it difficult to understand how he could pull the wool over experienced probation officers’ eyes but, nevertheless, that’s what happened.”

A new 24-hour satellite surveillance programme for high-risk offenders would have prevented Miki’s offending, he said.

While under an extended supervision order for his offending, Miki used a fake CV and birth certificate to gain employment during the six years to January 2012 in six North Island schools.

In 2009, he was arrested on the grounds of a Tauranga school where he had been working, only to go on to work at another school in Auckland.

After accumulating 53 fake identities, Miki was finally arrested in February this year and pleaded guilty in April to seven charges of fraud and four counts of breaching parole conditions.

The report pinpointed Miki’s arrest at Tauranga as one of several missed opportunities to eliminate him from teaching.

The Tauranga school’s principal had “erroneously assumed” his arrest would get to the Teachers Council via the police.

One “diligent” Tauranga constable, a former teacher, had also “located all the information needed to expose Miki, but was deterred” by a lack of the necessary paperwork.

“It was clear that potentially useful information about Miki was lost because at least one concerned person was put off by overly dogmatic bureaucracy,” the report found.

Teachers Council director Peter Lind said the council had been let down.

“Not only had the principal not reported to us, the courts hadn’t reported to us nor had New Zealand Police reported to us,” he said.

However, the people involved should get “the benefit of the doubt” and the fault lay with the systems.

“Yes, they should have done that. But then we also need to say what is it that we need to do to ensure that we don’t get another Miki slipping through the cracks,” Dr Lind said.

Ms Parata said the case provided a “very serious wake-up call” for the whole state sector.

The Government had accepted or partially accepted 36 of the 39 actions recommended by the inquiry. Three were still being considered, including for biometric photographic evidence to be required for all teachers.

Source: Paedophile easily got jobs at six schools. By John Hartevelt and Andrea Vance

The Dominion Post, Wednesday, August 22, 2012, p. A3

Fairfax NZ News

– © Fairfax NZ News