Trolling teacher cancelled from class

A former senior teacher at a state high school on the Gold Coast, who was sacked for shocking racist, sexist and violent social media trolling, has been banned from Queensland classrooms.

Details of the sacking of Gregory Shaun Teeney by the education department on February 15 last year were revealed in a decision handed down by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal on November 28 and published last week.

They were revealed after Mr Teeney failed in his bid to keep his identity a secret after his application for a non-publication order was rejected by the tribunal.

The tribunal was told that over several months Mr Teeney suggested certain groups of people should be shot and posted images of an unsecured, high calibre pistol that he claimed was his, and he claimed he was licensed to possess the weapon.

He also posted on thennamed Twitter “repeated sexual references about other Twitter users and about public figures” and images of a dead child accompanied by abusive commentary.

He also posted racist and grossly insulting comments about others and public figures.

His comments insulted people’s religion, race, gender, sexual orientation and sexual activity.

He submitted that he was remorseful and that the conduct took place in difficult personal circumstances.

Some of the tweets were described by the three tribunal members who presided in the case as “egregious” and Mr Teeney held himself out on Twitter to be a teacher.

He was defensive in the earlier disciplinary proceedings brought by the department, characterising his tweets as “robust discourse” and claiming the tweets were anonymous, a submission he later abandoned.

But in the tribunal he claimed he was remorseful for his tweets and late in the hearing his psychologist said he was depressed.

He was described in the tribunal as a “mature man and teacher of many years’ standing”.

The tribunal noted that he used tweets to attack one unnamed public figure, and stated this was “plainly unwise”, as they reported him to authorities, no doubt contributing to his sacking and his teaching ban. The decision by QCAT members Peter Bridgman, Vincent Knox and Robyn Oliver concluded that Teeney’s teacher registration should be cancelled and he should be banned from applying for registration or permission to teach indefinitely.