{"id":599897,"date":"2026-09-14T08:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599897\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T08:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:50:09","slug":"early-childhood-teacher-admits-to-teachers-disciplinary-tribunal-she-used-meth-before-work-and-at-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599897\/","title":{"rendered":"Early childhood teacher admits to Teacher\u2019s Disciplinary Tribunal she used meth before work and at lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m only 22 days sober but I\u2019d like to believe, and I feel confident, in a year\u2019s time I\u2019ll be able to go back into the teaching sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CAC submitted that between October 2023 and September 2024 the teacher used methamphetamine<\/a> during the working week.<\/p>\n

This included before work in the mornings and during her lunch break before returning to the classroom in the afternoon. It claims she was under the influence of meth during work hours while responsible for the care and welfare of learners.<\/p>\n

It also said she failed to inform her employer of her drug use.<\/p>\n

She has not been teaching since the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

CAC\u2019s counsel Evan McCaughan told the tribunal the committee had a lot of respect for the teacher for the steps she had taken to begin her sobriety journey.<\/a><\/p>\n

But he said she wasn\u2019t far enough into her recovery for it to be confident the same offending won\u2019t happen again and was seeking cancellation of her registration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t saying she can never teach again, she just needs to be further along the line in her recovery journey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any independent evidence she has been abstinent from methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven how early it is in her recovery journey there is too much risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teacher told the tribunal she had taken a number of steps to help with her sobriety, including leaving someone in her life who was an enabler. She was working with a psychiatrist and would be seeking help through addiction services.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeaching is my passion and teaching is what I will strive for and reach sobriety.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she accepted the charges and that cancellation of her registration was the only acceptable outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it breaks my heart, I will accept the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tribunal deputy chairman James Gurnick said the tribunal would deliberate on the penalties and aim to release its decision in the next month.<\/p>\n

It was likely the woman and the childcare centre would be granted permanent name suppression to support her recovery.<\/p>\n

When asked by a tribunal member what it would mean to teach again, she said it would \u201cmean the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of losing my career, not being able to teach again is devastating to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to teach again, I\u2019d do anything to prove myself.\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

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m only 22 days sober but I\u2019d like to believe, and I feel confident, in a year\u2019s time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[579,16489,95,1975,9218,27126,6184,101557,3401,2245,11946,51705,1868,13240,111,139,69,20863,213,666,4758,7574,18843,61,6847,8238,13797,102,4576,19135],"class_list":["post-599897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-addiction","tag-admits","tag-and","tag-at","tag-before","tag-break","tag-childhood","tag-disciplinary","tag-drug","tag-early","tag-influence","tag-lunch","tag-meth","tag-methamphetamine","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-she","tag-sports","tag-struggling","tag-taking","tag-teacher","tag-teachers","tag-to","tag-tribunal","tag-under","tag-used","tag-with","tag-work","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599897","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=599897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}