Teacher’s ‘nasty abuse pattern’

A man whose son was approached by a teacher at the centre of a college sex scandal in Marlborough says possibly dozens of other, older students have also been caught up in the woman’s ‘‘nasty pattern’’ of abuse.

The father, who Stuff agreed not to name to protect his family’s identity, says his teenage son refused the woman’s advances two days before someone else complained about the teacher in May.

But the man’s son was older than the legal sex age of 16, which meant the woman’s behaviour towards him was not illegal under the Child Protection Act but rather a breach of the Teaching Council code and standards.

The woman in her 30s, who cannot be named, admitted seven counts of having sex with minors, and two of sending sexual images and video to minors, at Blenheim District Court on Tuesday. She was convicted and bailed to a sentencing date of December 17.

The father said through his discussions with other parents, he estimated the woman had targeted dozens of students over nearly four years.

‘‘I talked to my son when this all came out and asked him how many boys were involved. He said: ‘Dad, this is years’ worth of stuff’ . . . My jaw just dropped. And I thought, this is massively shocking . . . So I can’t honestly put a number on it but it is a lot more than what the courts are saying, or what she has been divulging.’’

He was relieved his son felt able to tell him about the woman, even if it was not straight away.

His son said the woman drove him and a classmate to a course off-campus but pulled up in the car park and then ‘‘went to grab his privates’’.

When the teenager pushed her away and got out of the car, she turned her attention to his classmate, his father said.

‘‘So he just went to the course. And I said: ‘You left your mate in the car?’ And he said: ‘Well, he wasn’t getting out’.’’

The woman told a teenager she would fix his attendance record if they were late back from Mt Vernon car park.

‘‘He said: Dad, this is years’ worth of stuff . . . My jaw just dropped.’’

The father of a student at the school at centre of sex scandal

The teacher appeared to have ‘‘a nasty pattern’’, approaching students in the back seat of her car, he said. ‘‘It is just yucky.’’

The father said the woman was ‘‘obviously a predator’’, having used her position at the school to develop relationships with the boys and then cover up her offending.

‘‘She was doing their attendance records . . . she has mentally worked this out, and plotted this . . . She sounded like she was really good at what she was doing.

‘‘That is the sad thing about it, she was actually planning stuff.’’

He was also shocked the case was referred to restorative justice, where the woman and the boys could meet and try to get some closure, if the boys were willing to attend.

‘‘For those kids to be put in the same room as her, when she has been manipulating them for years, that is a joke,’’ the father said.