A teacher has been censured for professional misconduct that included suggesting a threesome with two boys.
The Teachers' Council's complaints assessment committee charged the teacher with serious misconduct over an inappropriate relationship with a Year 13 student from the unnamed school.
The New Zealand Teacher's Disciplinary Tribunal's agreed statement of facts detailed that after recently separating from her husband, the teacher invited the student to live with her, knowing that he was to be a pupil at the school she taught at.
The teacher also communicated with the students in an inappropriate manner by discussing personal matters with them and making statements to the effect of "oh I love you and care about you and I'll see you after school", the decision said.
She hugged and kissed him and once suggested a threesome with him and another boy while they were in her bedroom.
The teacher also had a photo of herself on her cellphone engaged in a sex act with her husband, which was seen by the boys.
She also lay on a bed to watch movies with one of the boys, hugged and kissed them and fell asleep with them, the agreed statement of facts said.
The student boarded with the teacher in 2010, and he was also enrolled in the school she taught at.
The teacher told the tribunal she accepted she hugged and kissed the student frequently.
However, she now realised it was inappropriate in the context of his being a student of the school.
At the time, she saw her interaction with him in the context of her treating him the same way as she treated her own children, the agreed statement of facts stated.
The teacher told the tribunal there was nothing romantic or sexual about her relationship with the student and said the photo of her and her husband was seen accidently when one of the students was borrowing her phone.
She told the tribunal she realised her behaviour was inappropriate and blurred teacher-student boundaries.
"I can only repeat that I was professionally naive to allow a student to live with me and enrol at the school where I was teaching.
"I failed myself, my family, the school and the teaching profession by not ensuring that the appropriate professional distance between me and these two school students was maintained."
The teacher told the tribunal she would like to teaching.
"My CV, ERO reports and appraisals show that I am a highly effective classroom practitioner. I think I have a great depth of knowledge, skill and experience that I can contribute to the education sector."
The teacher was suspended from the school in May 2010 and she resigned two months later. She gave a voluntary undertaking to the complaints assessment committee that December that she would not teach from that date forward, until the tribunal had given her permission to do so.
The tribunal said she had in effect, been suspended from teaching from May 2010, in excess of three years.
The suspension of her practising certificate ended on October 30 this year.
Conditions have been imposed on her practising certificate, including a mandatory supervision and guidance programme at any school or education institution which employs her in the future.
- By Brendan Manning of APNZ
