Teacher can’t recall giving student oral sex
A former Hamilton high school teacher who can’t recall giving oral sex to a student describes herself as a “Jekyll and Hyde drinker”, an education disciplinary hearing has heard.
The woman, who has interim name suppression, was charged with serious misconduct by the Teachers Council’s complaints assessment committee after Fraser High’s 2015 school leavers’ dinner.
Yesterday she appeared before a disciplinary tribunal of the Education Council.
The complaints assessment committee (CAC) said the teacher’s poor behaviour began while drinking wine during the non-alcohol dinner.
She touched the 18-year-old male student’s lap and bottom, and would later perform oral sex on him, the CAC said.
She told the hearing she was “more than mildly” drunk at the dinner but had previously told the CAC she was “somewhat intoxicated” and still able to hold a conversation.
A statement of facts said she left with the student to be driven home, but asked to stop a few blocks away to hide her address from students.
“It was one of the only sensible decisions I was making,” the teacher said during crossexamination by CAC counsel Seamus Woods.
Woods asked if it was “just convenient” the teacher, with 121⁄ years experience, couldn’t remember then performing oral sex on the teen. “I can’t say it didn’t [happen],” she said. The teacher’s poor behaviour apparently began while drinking wine at Fraser High’s school leavers’ dinner.
Word of the incident spread through the school community, and Fraser’s principal was alerted when another teacher heard students discussing it.
Initially denying the claims, the teacher said she “couldn’t fathom” the scenario, but after hearing accounts of her behaviour during the dinner, accepted responsibility.
The teacher, who admitted her drinking problem began three years before the incident, said her actions had brought “an element of shame and embarrassment” to her family and former school.
“I’m a Jekyll and Hyde drinker,” she told the hearing.
She said there were previous incidents when she couldn’t recall parts of an outing due to being too drunk.
But Woods said the teacher had “exaggerated” alcohol as a factor in the incident.
“It is not plausible that the respondent doesn’t remember it,” he said. “Although she does accept it may have in fact happened ... it is too convenient to be believed.”
The teacher’s counsel, Dizintra King, said her client’s lack of recollection of events “has to be accepted as truth” because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise.
King said the student, in another situation involving an intoxicated woman, “might well have found himself looking at some sort of criminal charge”.
After the incident, the teacher resigned, said her marriage was failing, and had moved to another region.
She said she’d been sober since February 14, 2016, and attended rehab courses.
“I want a new beginning. I know I’m good at teaching.”
She did not wish to further pursue a teaching career.
The tribunal has reserved its decision. It arises from a sense we have that we have a right to be happy, inspired, and fulfilled, rather than frustrated, stressed and dissatisfied. We also have a right to ask the big questions:
What is this life? What is my purpose? What do I really know about myself? What is truth?
For over 50 years the Auckland School of Philosophy has guided thousands of men and women from all walks of life towards a greater awareness of our own conscious being, inner strength and peace, and a sense of freedom and completeness. The Introductory Course is one meeting a week for nine weeks, offered in Auckland and Hamilton beginning in the second week of February. The basic fee is $165. www.philosophy.school.nz | General inquiries: 0800 610 539 For dates and times see: Give your life a lift. Join our nine week Introductory Course. All you need is a sincere spirit of inquiry; this is not academic philosophy, and no previous study is required. Our Introductory Course uses a powerful combination of mindfulness practices, observation, discussion, and consideration of the finest most practical principles from Eastern and Western philosophy to put you on a pathway towards discovering the wisdom, wellbeing, and the spiritual dimension of self that is natural to everyone. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared with what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
School of Philosophy Auckland Inc.