Student said McPeak comment was \u2018creepy\u2019<\/p>\n
McPeak is a teacher in the product design department at Rototuna Junior High School, where he had two inappropriate interactions with Year 9 students, who were 13 years old at the time.<\/p>\n
The first incident occurred in March 2022. A student was using a hammer in McPeak\u2019s class when another student came up behind her and said \u201cboo\u201d in her ear. <\/p>\n
The student got a fright and hit her finger with the hammer, causing her to scream out loudly in the class.<\/p>\n
McPeak heard her scream and told her off. When she tried to explain what had happened, McPeak did not listen and said \u201cyou only scream like that when you are getting raped\u201d.<\/p>\n
The comment caused her to cry and want to leave the class, the decision said.<\/p>\n
The student told her mother what McPeak had said to her and the mother emailed the principal raising concerns about the rape comment.<\/p>\n
The principal phoned the mother and spoke to her and the principal also emailed McPeak and suggested that they meet to talk.<\/p>\n
Shannan McPeak is a teacher at Rototuna Junior High.<\/p>\n
McPeak had apologised to the entire class for reprimanding the student inappropriately almost immediately afterwards, and he also spoke with the student and the group that she was with.<\/p>\n
As of October 2023 the student continued to not go to classes if she knew that McPeak would be there, the tribunal decision said.<\/p>\n
A second incident happened in June 2022 when a student hit another on the bum in a joking way.<\/p>\n
McPeak saw the interaction and said \u201cI wish I could do that, but I\u2019m not allowed\u201d.<\/p>\n
One of the students was upset by the comment and said it was \u201ccreepy\u201d, the decision said.<\/p>\n
The upset student reported the incident to the deputy principal, after which the principal sent McPeak a letter inviting him to a meeting about the incident.<\/p>\n
McPeak agreed to participate in an informal support programme and agreed to attend a restorative meeting with the students involved, but this did not go ahead because of other issues that arose, the decision said.<\/p>\n
Teacher underwent rehabilitation<\/p>\n
In March 2023, the principal submitted a mandatory report to the Teaching Council in relation to McPeak\u2019s conduct with respect to the first incident.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s Triage Committee referred the matter to the Complaints Assessment Committee for investigation, which was then put to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find that it is clearly established that the misconduct negatively impacted on the wellbeing of the students,\u201d tribunal deputy chairman Ian Murray said in the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not just the inappropriate sexual undertones of the comments but the belittling nature of the comment about rape.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we fully understand that flippant and thoughtless comments can be made on the spur of the moment, we were disturbed that Mr McPeak\u2019s mind went to the topic of rape when he heard a young girl cry out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were also concerned that he expressed a desire to hit a student in what was clearly construed by her as creepy. The fact that the behaviour was repeated and there was a sexual element to both comments showed it was not simply a one-off mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the tribunal was impressed with McPeak\u2019s reflective statement and the insight he showed.<\/p>\n
The principal told the tribunal McPeak had successfully completed a \u201crobust mentoring programme\u201d that required weekly and fortnightly meetings with his curriculum and pastoral leaders and the previous principal in 2023.<\/p>\n
McPeak was issued with a final warning by the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were provided with a reference from his current school. He clearly has the support of this school and the principal, and we were impressed with the assistance being provided to him,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that a repeat of this behaviour is highly unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email to parents from the school\u2019s board on Friday, it reiterated this message. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Teaching Council\u2019s Disciplinary Tribunal decision aligns with the school\u2019s actions around the outcome of the disciplinary process and the benefits of support and guidance in this situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Disciplinary Tribunal noted that they were confident a repeat of this behaviour is highly unlikely. We acknowledge and accept the findings of the Disciplinary Tribunal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also ask for your support to ensure that this matter does not distract students from their learning and to ensure that the privacy of the young people referenced in the Disciplinary Tribunal\u2019s decision is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Student said McPeak comment was \u2018creepy\u2019 McPeak is a teacher in the product design department at Rototuna Junior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25445,3013,27079,14806,97743,2837,8455,42,2959,26588,809,13840,189826,43,2847,1523,2850,34458,184409,37488,50029,31699,189825,9631,7574,27406,1361,61,6859,40,38,41,39,1316,197],"class_list":{"0":"post-359942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-allowed","9":"tag-but","10":"tag-censured","11":"tag-classes","12":"tag-cried","13":"tag-during","14":"tag-getting","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-high","17":"tag-junior","18":"tag-keep","19":"tag-like","20":"tag-mcpeak","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-only","23":"tag-over","24":"tag-pain","25":"tag-rape","26":"tag-raped","27":"tag-remark","28":"tag-rototuna","29":"tag-scream","30":"tag-shannan","31":"tag-student","32":"tag-teacher","33":"tag-teaching","34":"tag-that","35":"tag-to","36":"tag-told","37":"tag-top-news","38":"tag-top-stories","39":"tag-topnews","40":"tag-topstories","41":"tag-when","42":"tag-you"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359942","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=359942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}