{"id":455827,"date":"2026-06-01T18:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455827\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T18:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:48:08","slug":"st-cuthberts-college-alleged-inappropriate-conversations-and-concerns-about-a-sex-toy-at-school-staff-member-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455827\/","title":{"rendered":"St Cuthbert\u2019s College: Alleged inappropriate conversations and concerns about a \u2018sex toy\u2019 at school – staff member dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The staff member had passed reference checks and police checks, and attended an induction that covered safeguarding, professional boundaries, expectations, social media use and duty of care, Melville said. <\/p>\n

\"LeighLeigh Melville, the board chair at St Cuthbert’s College, said the junior assistant is no longer working at the school. <\/p>\n

She said the assistant began at St Cuthbert\u2019s in June 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cOut of respect for our students and families, it would not be appropriate for the college to speculate on individual circumstances while the investigation is underway,\u201d Melville said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation is focused on whether the conduct … met the high professional standards and boundaries we expect of any person working at the college.<\/p>\n

She said concerns were first raised with a member of the school\u2019s senior leadership team on May 12. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe matter was immediately escalated to the principal and board, and immediate action was taken. The assistant no longer works for the college.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"StSt Cuthbert’s College has alleged a former boarding house staff member had an inappropriate sexual item at the school. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n

The assistant worked 40 hours a week and did not have a supervisory role, according to Melville. Her main role was to support the boarding staff with a range of duties, including assisting before and after school and during mealtimes. <\/p>\n

The school would not answer questions relating to how many boarders were included in the allegedly inappropriate conversations, when they allegedly occurred – and the nature of the relationships between the former staff member and the student or students.<\/p>\n

The college\u2019s senior boarding house, Melrose House, has 34 boarders and is primarily for Year 13 students in their final year of school, with some Year 12 students.<\/p>\n

It is one of three boarding houses at St Cuthbert\u2019s, which together accommodate approximately 100 students from Years 7 to 13. <\/p>\n

The college told the Herald the investigation is being overseen by the college board and conducted by \u201cappropriately qualified people with relevant experience in student wellbeing and safeguarding\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"StSt Cuthbert’s College principal Charlotte Avery. <\/p>\n

The college declined to reveal its terms of reference and give a timeframe for completion of its investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo protect the privacy and wellbeing of our students and to preserve the integrity of the investigation process, the terms will not be released publicly,\u201d Melville said. <\/p>\n

St Cuthbert\u2019s College consistently ranks among the top schools in New Zealand<\/a> for academic results. <\/p>\n

Families pay $31,544 annually for senior students to attend<\/a> the school and an extra $21,608 for boarders.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Education oversees licensing of school hostels and can step in if standards around student safety and wellbeing aren\u2019t met.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile St Cuthbert\u2019s is a private school<\/a>, all school hostels must meet minimum standards,\u201d Jason Swann, the ministry\u2019s director of education for Auckland Central and East, told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ministry is aware of the matter. The school is running an active investigation and will keep us updated, as appropriate. We have offered support and guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolyne Meng-Yee<\/a> is an Auckland-based award-winning investigative journalist. She worked for the Herald on Sunday from 2007 to 2011 and rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ\u2019s 60 Minutes, 20\/20 and Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The staff member had passed reference checks and police checks, and attended an induction that covered safeguarding, professional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,1554,95,1975,682,12784,10709,1566,17512,227360,6376,10938,16133,35200,29819,26588,1329,111,43,139,69,1523,4062,7680,11420,1516,95585,24172,10939,17454],"class_list":["post-455827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-alleged","tag-and","tag-at","tag-being","tag-college","tag-concerns","tag-contract","tag-conversations","tag-cuthberts","tag-dismissed","tag-herald","tag-inappropriate","tag-investigated","tag-involving","tag-junior","tag-member","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-school","tag-sex","tag-st","tag-staff","tag-terminated","tag-toy","tag-understands","tag-whose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455827","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=455827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}