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Queensland High School Teacher Banned After Having Sex With Student

The incident occurred at the school where his wife also taught.

The student was just 17 and in Year 11 when the affair began in 2014.

Gold Coast Bulletin reports that in evidence presented to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, an inappropriate relationship began when the teacher started giving her gifts, including sweets and sending her crude emails. A tribunal member described this time as “a testing of the waters for a possible later sexual relationship.”

Soon after the student turned 18 in October 2015, the man secretly sent her his phone number and they began to exchange sexually explicit texts and phone calls. The deception continued, with the married teacher leaving a family holiday to have sex with the girl at his home. On another occasion where the two met, he lied to his wife telling her he was seeing a movie with another teacher.

“Some of the sexual encounters occurred at school during school hours, other in a park, and at the teacher’s home,” said the Tribunal.

The pair met on at least five different occasions for intercourse before the girl graduated in 2015. The tribunal also heard the former teacher had left an envelope for the student containing $200 to spend at Schoolies, at the school office, disguising the gesture as a reference. During this time, he took a day off work to spend time with the girl.

The relationship was ultimately exposed in early 2016 when rumours began to circulate on social media and an ex-student reported it to the school. Initially, all allegations were denied by both the teacher and student.

During the official investigation, it was discovered the he had tried to influence the student, contacting her from public phones and instructing her on how to answer certain questions to hide the true nature of their affair.

The teacher was eventually forced to resign after being confronted with overwhelming evidence in April of last year. On December 23, 2016 the tribunal cancelled the man’s registration and he will not be eligible to register to teach until 2023. The disgraced teacher has also been ordered to pay the Queensland College of Teachers $5000 in costs.

In order to resume teaching again, he must complete a professional boundaries and ethics course and provide a psychologist’s report before he can submit his application.

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