{"id":196064,"date":"2025-12-22T08:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196064\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T08:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:15:08","slug":"teacher-censured-after-asking-if-he-could-buy-a-students-adhd-medication-from-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196064\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher censured after asking if he could buy a student\u2019s ADHD medication from her"},"content":{"rendered":"

But when school returned, the teacher messaged the girl through Teams and said he was having problems with his concentration. <\/p>\n

He gave her his cell phone number and asked her to text him. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust on the ADD thing, I\u2019ve been trying to get some black-market Ritalin or Concerta<\/a>, but haven\u2019t had much luck. Are you taking your whole prescription at the moment, or can you sell a card?\u201d he asked her through a text message. <\/p>\n

The student made excuses her prescription was controlled and it could be the wrong dose for him, as she feared there could be repercussions for her education if she refused outright.<\/p>\n

The teacher then apologised, moved on to a different subject and never ended up buying any medication from her.<\/p>\n

But the fact he had asked later became a matter before the Teachers\u2019 Disciplinary Tribunal<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the teacher appeared before the tribunal, where he admitted a charge of serious misconduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disgusted at myself that I\u2019ve done that to a young person,\u201d he told the tribunal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never want to be back here again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teacher said, in retrospect, he should have referred the girl to a school counsellor, dean or deputy principal when she began disclosing mental health issues to him but weighed her confidentiality against his duty of care.<\/p>\n

He admitted he then breached that duty of care further and abused her trust when he asked her to sell him the medication. <\/p>\n

\u201cI deliberately invited a private form of communication to ask a vulnerable student for her prescription medication. There are no excuses for this behaviour. I am deeply ashamed and regret the position I put [the student] in,\u201d the teacher told the tribunal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI crossed a serious professional boundary driven by a self-interested desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Overly familiar\u2019<\/p>\n

Now, the tribunal has ordered the man be censured, provide evidence from a health professional that he\u2019s suitable to be a teacher, undertake training about professional boundaries and disclose the tribunal\u2019s findings to any future employer. <\/p>\n

The tribunal said many of the messages between the student and teacher were \u201coverly familiar\u201d and unprofessional, with personal information shared by both.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exchange reads as if between close friends, not teacher and student,\u201d the tribunal said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tribunal considers that there was a significant breach of professional boundaries by the respondent in his conduct with [the student], with the respondent developing a relationship in which he offered emotional support on a regular basis, shared details of his personal life and also sought support from [the student].\u201d<\/p>\n

The tribunal said the man\u2019s conduct was made worse by the length and frequency of the messaging, and the fact he didn\u2019t refer the matter to a guidance counsellor or a colleague better equipped to help her with the issues she was facing. <\/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":"But when school returned, the teacher messaged the girl through Teams and said he was having problems with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3867,74,27518,3167,27079,55996,124,5205,29194,71,305,692,42,1364,5420,9858,524,43,40152,1527,3767,7574,27406,40,38,41,39,13920,14638,1533],"class_list":["post-196064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-adhd","tag-after","tag-asking","tag-buy","tag-censured","tag-convince","tag-could","tag-council","tag-educator","tag-from","tag-have","tag-he","tag-headlines","tag-her","tag-hes","tag-if","tag-medication","tag-news","tag-profession","tag-return","tag-students","tag-teacher","tag-teaching","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tried","tag-wants","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196064","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=196064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}