tribunal<\/a> declined to suppress Heke\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\u201cTeachers found guilty of serious misconduct involving violence against children should be publicly identified to protect the public and maintain confidence in the disciplinary process,\u201d the tribunal said.<\/p>\n
An investigation was launched by the Teaching Council\u2019s complaints assessment committee (CAC) after the school\u2019s acting principal reported Heke following a parent\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n
Student injured when pushed<\/p>\n
The incidents happened between February and December 2021, including a specific day \u2013 December 2, 2021 \u2013 when Heke grabbed a student\u2019s arm, pulled a toy car away from him and pushed him to the ground, injuring him. <\/p>\n
After attending an initial meeting in April 2024, Heke did not engage in the disciplinary process and did not file any evidence in response to the serious misconduct charges against him. <\/p>\n
He was advised to seek legal advice but chose to remain self-represented.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Mr Heke is disadvantaged by his absence, he chose not to engage despite multiple opportunities,\u201d according to the decision released in the name of tribunal chairman James Gurnick. <\/p>\n
The tribunal heard from six witnesses, including the boy who was pushed after putting a toy car in his pocket instead of a drawer, as Heke had told him to do.<\/p>\n
Heke grabbed the boy, dug into his pocket to retrieve the car, then pushed him over, injuring his wrist.<\/p>\n
The same boy also reported \u201congoing\u201d incidents when Heke would hit him with a stick on his arms, shoulders and head when he was \u201cplaying around\u201d, and hit him on the head with a guitar when he was not listening.<\/p>\n
The boy\u2019s older brother witnessed the toy car incident and yelled at Heke, who replied that he \u201cdidn\u2019t even push him that hard\u201d.<\/p>\n
Boys reluctant to return to school<\/p>\n
The boys\u2019 mother made a formal complaint and said her sons were reluctant to return to the school. <\/p>\n
The following year, they were enrolled elsewhere.<\/p>\n
A 7-year-old girl also described being hit on the head with a stick in front of the class during reading time.<\/p>\n
She said \u201cit only hurt a little bit\u201d but she felt like she was about to cry.<\/p>\n
The girl said the stick was thin and long, coming up to Heke\u2019s hip. <\/p>\n
She said Heke would hit his students on the head with the stick daily and \u201chit a lot of other people\u201d without apparent reason.<\/p>\n
Another child described being hit on the head with a tokotoko, or stick, and a guitar. <\/p>\n
He said Heke would hit students when they were \u201cbeing stupid and not listening\u201d. The hits were \u201cmedium smacks\u201d that felt sore and scared students.<\/p>\n
Although Heke did not engage with the investigation, the tribunal said that, in a phone call, he described the process as \u201cBS\u201d and expressed frustration with it.<\/p>\n
He said it had stripped his mana from him and destroyed his teaching career. <\/p>\n
But the tribunal decision said the evidence clearly established that Heke\u2019s conduct adversely affected the wellbeing of students.<\/p>\n
One student suffered physical injury and emotional distress. The second felt like crying, and the third, and others, were scared, the decision said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegular use of force created a threatening learning environment that would inevitably impact all students\u2019 wellbeing and learning … <\/p>\n
\u201cThe sustained use of physical force against young children, particularly striking them on the head with implements, represents conduct of the utmost seriousness.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo teacher who engaged in such conduct can be considered safe to remain in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tribunal found a charge of serious misconduct proven, censured Heke and cancelled his practising certificate.<\/p>\n
It also ordered him to pay $10,397 to the CAC, towards the costs of the investigation into his conduct. <\/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":"The name of the school has been suppressed to protect the identity of the students involved. However, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18919,95,665,1558,2082,1874,3368,93427,106,170433,20557,8454,11518,111,43,139,1067,69,6662,8465,10107,1238,48938,20705,3767,7574,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-313776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-aged","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-around","11":"tag-been","12":"tag-for","13":"tag-found","14":"tag-guilty","15":"tag-guitar","16":"tag-head","17":"tag-heke","18":"tag-hitting","19":"tag-including","20":"tag-misconduct","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-northland","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-off","27":"tag-patrick","28":"tag-regularly","29":"tag-serious","30":"tag-stick","31":"tag-struck","32":"tag-students","33":"tag-teacher","34":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313776","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=313776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}