{"id":116924,"date":"2025-11-04T05:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T05:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116924\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T05:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T05:57:12","slug":"teacher-suspended-after-sending-late-night-messages-to-teen-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116924\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher suspended after sending late-night messages to teen students"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two students complained after nearly two years of communication<\/a> and the teacher was taken to the Teachers\u2019 Disciplinary Tribunal<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Today, the tribunal has published its decision to censure the man and suspend him from teaching for one year. <\/p>\n

If he returns to the profession after the suspension he must let any future employer know about the tribunal\u2019s decision and undertake training about professional boundaries. <\/p>\n

\u2018An ass guy\u2019<\/p>\n

According to the summary of facts attached to the tribunal\u2019s ruling, the teacher, whose name was suppressed, began messaging a Year 11 girl electronically, venting to her about his personal life and telling her she was a \u201cgreat listener\u201d.<\/p>\n

On one occasion, he told the girl how his wife had gotten \u201chyped\u201d after watching a sex scene.<\/p>\n

He also detailed his fantasies and preferences for women, including telling the girl he was an \u201cass guy\u201d and preferred an \u201ceven distribution\u201d.<\/p>\n

The teacher made comments about the student\u2019s cleavage and said she had a body most girls would want. <\/p>\n

He also suggested the girl was going to be a sex addict and made numerous comments of a sexual undertone in their late-night communications. <\/p>\n

On multiple occasions, he asked her to meet up with him outside of school, including going to the gym, pool or even bowling. All of these invitations were declined. <\/p>\n

While the teacher gave the girl and another female student rides home from school, he encouraged her to keep their relationship secret and to lie to anyone who asked about it. <\/p>\n

When the relationship broke down the teacher sent her a message saying it was \u201cbeyond fked up\u201d that she was ignoring him.<\/p>\n

In May 2023, the student made a formal complaint to the school about how the interactions had affected her and how she\u2019d felt \u201ccreeped out and disgusted\u201d by the messages. <\/p>\n

Another Year 11 student then became the target for late-night messages from the teacher. He questioned their use of pronouns and a decision to change their name. <\/p>\n

The teacher asked to see photos of the student in a ball dress, commented on their physical appearance and said that anyone would be lucky to date them. <\/p>\n

He also told the student they could talk to him about anything and said, \u201cWe don\u2019t keep secrets\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, the relationship also broke down and the teacher sent multiple emotionally charged messages to the student, which they did not reply to. <\/p>\n

\u2018Excessive friendships\u2019<\/p>\n

A complaints assessment committee (CAC) of the Teachers Council, which levelled the charge against the teacher before the tribunal at a hearing last year, said his behaviour amounted to serious misconduct. <\/p>\n

The lawyer representing the CAC, Mark Shaw, said the man\u2019s behaviour impacted the students\u2019 wellbeing, especially given he was in a trusted position as their teacher. <\/p>\n

Shaw submitted that the students were vulnerable, blamed themselves for what had happened and felt pressured to confide in the teacher, who went to great lengths to evade detection, indicating he knew the messaging was inappropriate. <\/p>\n

In response, the teacher accepted some of the messages he sent were inappropriate and he should have put more boundaries in place, but he was under a great deal of personal stress stemming from his family at the time. <\/p>\n

In his submissions, the teacher stated only a small portion of the messages \u201cinvolved elements remotely touching sexuality\u201d and that was not the focus or intention of the overall communication. <\/p>\n

The teacher said there had been \u201cno sexual exploitation\u201d and he\u2019d tried to form \u201cexcessive friendships\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, that explanation did not convince the tribunal. <\/p>\n

\u201cNone of his communications with Student A and Student B should have been of a sexual or intimate nature,\u201d the tribunal said in its decision. <\/p>\n

Overall, the tribunal found that the teacher\u2019s conduct was unacceptable. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tribunal considers the charges reflect on the respondent\u2019s poor understanding of and respect for appropriate behaviours and boundaries with students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey show a lack of judgment and insight into their own behaviour. Further, they show a lack of respect by the respondent for his professional obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tribunal said the teacher\u2019s behaviour also indicated he had little insight into the impact he had on two vulnerable students. <\/p>\n

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawat\u016b, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two students complained after nearly two years of communication and the teacher was taken to the Teachers\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,82959,74,7800,82958,48359,82957,793,6868,42,296,4507,8526,1446,82955,60677,43,2551,82956,16134,3048,3466,17703,3767,18834,7574,5163,10706,61,40,38,41,39,17454],"class_list":{"0":"post-116924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-advances","10":"tag-after","11":"tag-body","12":"tag-creeped","13":"tag-disgusted","14":"tag-fantasies","15":"tag-felt","16":"tag-girl","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-into","19":"tag-late","20":"tag-latenight","21":"tag-making","22":"tag-messaged","23":"tag-messages","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-night","26":"tag-outlining","27":"tag-remarks","28":"tag-said","29":"tag-sending","30":"tag-sexual","31":"tag-students","32":"tag-suspended","33":"tag-teacher","34":"tag-teen","35":"tag-teenage","36":"tag-to","37":"tag-top-news","38":"tag-top-stories","39":"tag-topnews","40":"tag-topstories","41":"tag-whose"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}