Whang\u0101rei<\/a> Girls\u2019 High School today sent a letter to families naming Nordstrom and saying that she had not been employed at the school for \u201ca number of years\u201d.<\/p>\nIt said she had not been a teacher of any of the students currently enrolled there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to assure you that this school has no tolerance for teachers that do not adhere to their professional code of conduct and\/or do anything to jeopardise student safety and wellbeing,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
Relationship with Student A<\/p>\n
According to an agreed summary of facts released by the tribunal, Nordstrom engaged in an \u201cinappropriate relationship\u201d with Student A while she was teaching her.<\/p>\n
She communicated with the student throughout the school day and late at night, first on the school email system and then on social media. <\/p>\n
Nordstrom offered the student extra tuition at her home until after 10pm and they then began meeting socially outside school hours. <\/p>\n
\u201cMs Nordstrom would share intimate personal details with Student A, including that she had a troubled relationship with her partner and was struggling with her sexuality,\u201d the summary of facts said.<\/p>\n
![\"April]()
April Nordstrom has had her teacher registration cancelled. <\/p>\n
Student A began staying overnight at Nordstrom\u2019s house and their relationship became intimate.<\/p>\n
Nordstrom would pick the student up from home around 10pm and return her early the next morning, without her parents\u2019 knowledge.<\/p>\n
On two occasions, Nordstrom took the student off the school grounds during school hours to engage in sexual activity in her car or at home.<\/p>\n
They began to meet more frequently outside school and the student would tell her parents lies about where she had been. <\/p>\n
Then, the student\u2019s mental health began to decline. <\/p>\n
\u201cStudent A started experiencing panic attacks, lost focus on school, and her relationship with her parents deteriorated,\u201d the summary of facts said.<\/p>\n
At one point, after other teachers raised concerns, Nordstrom requested a meeting with then-principal Anne Cooper. The student also attended.<\/p>\n
They told Cooper they were supporting each other with personal issues but did not disclose the extent of their relationship. <\/p>\n
Cooper told Nordstrom to maintain personal boundaries and not meet the student outside of school. <\/p>\n
Ex students blew the whistle<\/p>\n
The true nature of the relationship was uncovered after two former students called Student A\u2019s father to advise him that there was a romantic and sexual relationship going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey called Student A\u2019s parents as they felt uncomfortable after they became aware that Student A was still a student,\u201d the summary said.<\/p>\n
The student\u2019s parents raised a complaint with the school and its board of trustees. An investigation and a complaint to the Teaching Council were launched.<\/p>\n
Nordstrom resigned from her teaching position.<\/p>\n
The Teaching Council referred Nordstrom to its complaints assessment committee, which uncovered evidence that suggested Nordstrom had engaged in inappropriate relationships and conduct while employed earlier at Horowhenua College.<\/p>\n
It interviewed past students from the college and was told that three students had stayed overnight at Nordstrom\u2019s home, although in separate rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the evening, Ms Nordstrom engaged in inappropriate conversations with the students on topics such as smoking marijuana, partying and drinking alcohol,\u201d the summary said.<\/p>\n
Nordstrom began sending a male student, Student B, inappropriate messages and met him outside school hours.<\/p>\n
Student felt \u2018weirded out\u2019<\/p>\n
Eventually, Student B began to feel \u201cweirded out\u201d by Nordstrom\u2019s constant messaging and conduct. He began to avoid her and skipped classes.<\/p>\n
Nordstrom also had out-of-school relationships with two other students, C and D, who, along with her, called themselves \u201cthe trio\u201d.<\/p>\n
Student D spent the night at Nordstrom\u2019s house on several occasions, cooking dinner with her and watching movies.<\/p>\n
During these times, Nordstrom would discuss personal issues, including her relationship with her partner and show Student D her Tinder profile.<\/p>\n
She would tell Student D which people on the Tinder app she planned to sleep with.<\/p>\n
When questioned, Nordstrom said she would often answer personal questions from students but this was \u201cakin to a health class discussion\u201d.<\/p>\n
She confirmed discussing the Tinder app with Student D but said it was in an \u201cexplorative way, rather than showing people she wanted to sleep with\u201d.<\/p>\n
In addition to cancelling Nordstrom\u2019s registration, the tribunal ordered costs against her of $6600.<\/p>\n
Whang\u0101rei Girls\u2019 High School said in its letter to parents that it had taken \u201cimmediate action\u201d against Nordstrom as soon as the matter was brought to its attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tribunal has now formally censured April Nordstrom and cancelled her teacher registration so that she can no longer practise as a teacher,\u201d the school said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank the Teaching Council and its disciplinary tribunal for taking this matter seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She was charged with serious misconduct for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with the student, identified as Student…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,54170,20703,6871,111,43,139,91579,69,1118,75839,520,17703,9631,7574,1869,102],"class_list":["post-302702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-april","tag-cancelled","tag-has","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nordstrom","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-registration","tag-relationship","tag-sexual","tag-student","tag-teacher","tag-whangrei","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302702","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=302702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}