Zampatti kicked out

Teacher’s affair with student ‘reprehensible on every level’

A MARRIED teacher continued his “clandestine” affair with a teen student even after his wife discovered the romance.

Daniel Zampatti has been stripped of his teaching registration after the Victorian Institute of Teaching found his behaviour “absolutely reprehensible”.

The institute revealed in its decision to cancel his registration that Mr Zampatti had shown little sustained remorse for the sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student.

It said he also failed to understand the consequences of the three-month affair, unlike his wife – who worked at the same school.

His wife told the institute’s inquiry: “I pointed out to him that this was a black and white situation; right and wrong, and that if he couldn’t recognise this then he wasn’t fit to be a teacher.”

The Victorian Institute of Teaching panel found Mr Zampatti kissed and performed sexual acts with the student during a weekend getaway in October last year.

It said that it was his wife who lifted the lid on details of the affair.

“He left it to the student and his wife to bear the brunt of revealing full details of the relationship,” the institute’s finding said.

“He placed his wife, when she eventually got the truth out of him about the relationship, in an invidious ‘conflicted’ situation, as she described it, forcing her to choose between her responsibilities to the student and her obvious love and concern for his wellbeing and that of their family.

“He subsequently betrayed that love and concern by con- tinuing the affair after he had given a guarantee that he would end it”.

The Geelong Advertiser is legally prevented from publishing the names of the student, school and witnesses, as well as other details of the case.

She said they slept in the same bed and performed sexual acts, but did not have intercourse. The pair also swapped text messages, including about 120 after midnight and “photos of a personal nature”.

“(Mr Zampatti) conducted the relationship in a furtive and clandestine manner which involved subterfuge and deception,” the panel said in its finding.

“The Panel found the teacher’s behaviour reprehensible on every level. He and the student knew what they were doing was wrong but he encouraged her to continue the relationship in a way that would avoid its disclosure.”