Claims sex offender teaching

A convicted sexual offender may have been allowed to teach children at a south Wellington school.

Island Bay School has sent an email to parents suspending Saturday morning music classes while the school investigates allegations a relief teacher with past convictions was allowed to teach after not being properly vetted.

While the Saturday music classes are run at the school, they are run by the Ministry of Education-subsidised Wellington Music Centre, which markets itself as running for more than 30 years in various locations – currently at Island Bay School.

But the school was not letting itself off the hook, even as the allegations come from a single tipoff and the accused has not been confirmed as even running sessions in the music class, let alone the school.

It’s understood the Island Bay School holds the contract for the Wellington Music Centre programme, which is funded by the Ministry of Education.

‘‘The school was told yesterday by one concerned person that there is a possibility that someone who relieved on a small number of occasions for a regular teacher would not have passed a police vetting process,’’ an email from the school to parents said.

‘‘This was said to be because of previous convictions for serious sexual offending.’’

It said music teachers were managed informally, meaning they didn’t go through police checks before teaching children.

‘‘We now understand the school was wrong to take that approach and that standard employment provisions should have been in place.’’

However, the allegation about the teacher amounted to ‘‘one concerned parent’’ who told the school there was a possibility that a person who relieved a few times would not have passed the vetting process because of the past conviction for serious sexual offending.

‘‘The person who raised this concern has provided us with the name of a known offender who they suspect may have taught music at the Saturday classes.

‘‘We have not been able to confirm at this stage whether they have taught at the music school or not or to positively identify them by the name they used.’’

The school was still uncertain if the alleged sexual offender had in fact taught at the Saturday music school.

The Ministry of Education’s Katrina Casey said the school contacted it on Wednesday after finding tutors at the Wellington Music Centre, based at the school, had not been police vetted as required by law.

‘‘The school has taken the issue extremely seriously and communicated to parents about this issue. The school has confirmed that all regular teaching staff and parents on school camps have been police vetted.’’

The School Trustees’ Association was working with the school to review policies and procedures. Police were also advising the school. ‘‘We will continue to liaise with all of the relevant agencies to ensure the school has all the support it needs,’’ Casey said.

The ministry would be reminding all schools, providers and suppliers of their legal obligations.

All providers of children’s services are required to operate under the Children’s Act 2014.

Following policy changes schools and kura were given until July 2018 to complete safety checks of all existing core workers, and until July 2019 for non-core workers.

‘‘The school has taken the issue extremely seriously and communicated to parents about this issue.’’

Katrina Casey