Teacher drew explicit images in front of pupils

A Christchurch teacher has been disciplined for drawing a whip-wielding naked woman sitting on a naked man, telling girls to dress carefully or old men may take advantage of them, and yelling at a class “did your parents pull you out of a dumpster?”.

“You guys are going to tell someone and get me in trouble,” the teacher said to three students in June 2020, according to a recently released Teaching Council decision.

Moments earlier he had drawn the whip-wielding image as his year 11 class packed up at the end of a lesson.

The Teaching Council was first alerted in an August 2020 report from the Christchurch school’s principal that expressed concern he was mentally unwell. He was later sacked.

The NZ Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal considered a series of matters about the teacher’s conduct in October 2022. It issued its decision in December that year, but it has only been made public in recent days.

The man, who was granted suppression because he shares a name with another teacher, told the council the naked bodies and whip were an “attempt to desexualise the students’ notions of fantasy”, and the drawings had no genitalia. He admitted that a second drawing of a man and woman having sex, found in his classroom by year 11 female students the same month, was inappropriate to bring to school.

In May 2020 he told year 11 female students to “be careful how you dress, because old men like [redacted] might take advantage of you”.

He previously “growled and yapped” at a student who shared a name with his pet dog, and said the name was that of “a white bitch”, knowing the student who shared the name could overhear through a video call.

The following month the man inappropriately made a comment about his own body hair and complimented a student on her hair after being asked by another about which of them had more hair.

In response to concerns about his behaviour raised with the Teaching Council, the man said he could not remember the circumstances of the comment about the way students should dress, but said he would “never have taken advantage” of them.

His canine imitations were accepted by the student who shared a name with his dog as being in good nature, he said, and the “white bitch” comment was in reference to his pet.

A comment about his body hair was a “flippant remark” to highlight his lack of head hair and ease the mood after the student whose hair he commented on appeared self-conscious, he said.

Earlier in June of 2020 the teacher kicked a faulty stool into a door, breaking the seat, to get the attention of a noisy, laughing year 9 class. “How the hell does this happen? Did your parents pull you out of a dumpster? Can someone explain to me? ’Cos the stork couldn’t bring them the child they wanted,” he yelled during the class. He also called the class “spoilt little muppets”.

The teacher told the Teaching Council he had tipped it over the chair, but admitted he should have reacted differently.

He was fined $582, censured and told to alert future employers of the decision for the next two years. He must also “undergo professional mentoring” for two years and take a course in professional boundaries and classroom behaviour management.

The teacher was dismissed from the school with two months’ notice and resigned before this notice expired in October 2020.

“The tribunal is also not convinced ... the respondent fully appreciates the extent his behaviour was likely to impact negatively on students. The tribunal remains concerned that the respondent is yet to take full ownership for his actions.”