SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Reports of NZ teachers’ misconduct increase

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Hundreds of New Zealand teachers have been investigated for inappropriate conduct in the past five years.

Sexual misconduct, pornography, violence, alcohol, drugs, dishonesty, fraud and theft are some of the serious breaches of conduct by teachers.

And the number of teachers being reported is on the rise, figures obtained by Fairfax Media show.

In 2014, 427 conduct reports were referred by the New Zealand Teachers Council to the Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC), compared to 252 referrals in 2010.

Of the 427 referrals last year, 69 were as a result of complaints from members of the public.

Conduct issues reported by current or former employees accounted for 214 referrals while 144 referrals were because a teacher recorded a criminal conviction.

In the past five years, 1781 teachers have come under the scrutiny of the CAC with 118 struck off the teachers register.

For many others, there was no further action or an agreement was reached between the teacher and the person who made the complaint.

Subsequently 45 teachers were referred to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal and 27 of those were deregistered.

Other sanctions handed down by the tribunal included censure, suspension and conditions on the teacher’s practising certificate.

For full story go to:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/67617060/reports-of-teachers-misconduct-increase

Rachel Kellie Whitwell: Teacher censured after appearing in porn magazines

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In its Media Release of 5 March 2011, the highly respected registered charity Family First NZ welcomed the majority decision by the New Zealand Teacher’s Council to formally censure a female primary school teacher for her “serious misconduct”  – involving her work as a porn magazine model – and ordered her deregistration (See 35 page decision The Complaints Assessment Committee v Rachel Kellie Whitwell. NZTDT 2011/7).

The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that the defendent, aged 29, must meet the CAC’s actual and reasonable cost associated with the disciplinary proceeding and pay half the Tribunal’s costs.

“Teachers have a special status as leaders and should be respected – especially by our children,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

“Modeling and selling naked photos to a pornographic magazine doesn’t meet that standard. Associating the photos with her profession of teaching children is also unacceptable.

“These sexually explicit photos of the teacher have been published and are now in the public domain. The combined role of porn star and primary school teacher simply doesn’t fit for many families. Parents would be just as concerned if a teacher was coming to school topless or teaching that pornographic magazines are harmless. [Read more…]