Dad strikes son, ruled not fit to be teacher

A father has been found unfit to teach after whacking his son across the face.

He struck his 11-year-old son and pushed him to the ground during an argument with his wife. The blow to the face caused swelling to the child’s eye.

After self-reporting the domestic incident to the police in December 2017, the teacher removed himself from the child’s house for two nights and cited being ‘‘emotionally stressed’’.

The matter came to the Teaching Council’s attention when the man, who has name suppression, filed his police vetting report the following year.

The Disciplinary Tribunal found the man’s conduct amounted to serious misconduct because it adversely reflected his fitness to be a teacher, and may bring the profession into disrepute.

The police investigated the incident, which had also been raised with Oranga Tamariki social workers.

The man told the tribunal he was deeply remorseful. Hitting his son was a poor decision and a ‘‘hurtful act’’.

The teacher said he had reconciled the relationship with his family and was attending counselling sessions.

The incident ‘‘amounted to physical abuse, psychological abuse, an act that could be the subject of a prosecution for an offence punishable by a jail term of three months or more, and that it was an act that brings discredit to the profession’’, the finding said.

The teacher has been censured and cannot teach for 18 months from May 1, 2019, and if he returns to teaching must show prospective employers a copy of the decision.

He was also given a warning by police, though not prosecuted.