Kiriona was instead charged with careless driving and careless driving causing injury, and was discharged without conviction on both charges in 2023.<\/p>\n
However, the Teaching Council wanted Kiriona\u2019s licence cancelled and laid its own charges before the Teachers\u2019 Disciplinary Tribunal. <\/p>\n
In a recently released decision, the tribunal, which is independent of the Teaching Council, said cancelling or suspending Kiriona\u2019s licence wasn\u2019t necessary, and instead ordered that he be formally censured.<\/p>\n
According to the tribunal\u2019s decision, the judge who dealt with the criminal case was surprised that three charges of careless driving causing injury were withdrawn.<\/p>\n
However, the decision to discharge him without conviction relied on his strong community support, as well as the result of an internal investigation by the school and Kiriona\u2019s participation in a wh\u0101nau hui.<\/p>\n
Horowhenua College was the scene of an incident that resulted in four children being injured during a fundraising event on Sunday, April 3, 2022. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
A complaints assessment committee (CAC) of the Teaching Council wanted Kiriona\u2019s registration cancelled, given his conduct meant four students were seriously injured. <\/p>\n
In submissions to the tribunal, the CAC said that no safety briefing was given to the students, Kiriona\u2019s driving caused the trailer to roll, the vehicle and trailer were in an unsafe condition, and there were 15 students packed into it. <\/p>\n
It was alleged Kiriona showed little insight into the cause of the incident. <\/p>\n
In its decision, the tribunal said that Kiriona\u2019s behaviour amounted to serious misconduct. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision to allow 15 students to enter the trailer with the intention of towing them around the field, and then doing so, regardless of whether any \u2018briefing\u2019 was given, was inherently risky and displayed a lack of judgment,\u201d the tribunal said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an accident, but an accident due to misconduct and which caused harm. There is evidence of significant physical injuries to at least four children, and abrasions to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the tribunal found that neither cancellation nor suspension of his teaching registration was required. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis appears to be a one-off incident, and Mr Kiriona has continued to teach with the support of his principal. The risk of recurrence is low,\u201d the tribunal said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe accept that there is no obvious need for a penalty which is imposed for protective purposes or to provide reassurance about Mr Kiriona\u2019s teaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it is important to reflect disapproval for a culpable breach of professional standards, and to ensure that those who need to be aware of this matter are.\u201d<\/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":"Kiriona was instead charged with careless driving and careless driving causing injury, and was discharged without conviction on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23968,74,1875,27079,12784,60037,72124,42,137507,148705,43,3767,7574,40,38,41,39,2983],"class_list":["post-258422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-23968","tag-after","tag-carrying","tag-censured","tag-college","tag-dylan","tag-flipping","tag-headlines","tag-horowhenua","tag-kiriona","tag-news","tag-students","tag-teacher","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trailer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258422","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=258422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}