Teacher offered student sexual rewards in exchange for school work
The teacher has since been censured and her registration has been cancelled following the affair, which took place last year. Photo / Thinkstock
A teacher who had sex with a student on a number of occasions, and later offered him sexual rewards in exchange for completing his school work, has admitted her actions were "totally unprofessional".
The teacher has since been censured and her registration has been cancelled following the affair, which took place last year.
In its written decision, the Teachers' Disciplinary Tribunal said the female teacher was found to have behaved in a unprofessional manner amounting to serious misconduct, after entering into an inappropriate relationship with the Year 13 student.
However, she was granted name suppression in the interest of protecting the student, and her young children.
The tribunal said the teacher had sex with the student, who was not named, on a number of occasions, at his house, during school hours and on school grounds.
She was also found to have exchanged inappropriate Facebook messages with the student in which she would offer sexual rewards to motivate him to do his school work.
The message said: "do a bit of learning of the techniques other than simile then do it with no notes... if you do you can have a special request tomorrow... haha pretty much do anything you want any way but you can have that as your motivation if it'll help."
The affair was revealed following an investigation by the secondary school, after the student's parents laid a complaint.
The teacher admitted to the tribunal that she had behaved "totally unprofessionally".
"However what I did was totally out of character compared to my 20 years previously."
The teacher said she was suffering health issues at the time of the affair, was having problems with work, her own family, and was coping with the loss of her father who had recently passed away.
She told the tribunal the affair began when the student kissed her, and "made me feel like I was really special to him".
"... It stunned me and I was flattered and responded unprofessionally.
"He made me feel like I mattered and I was someone who he counted on to be in his life not as his teacher, but as a person."
The student said he wanted to lose his virginity to someone he "trusted" and who was "special", the teacher told the tribunal.
She went on to say she would "absolutely" go back and change things if she could.
Tribunal chairman Kenneth Johnston said the teacher was motivated by her own needs, and had very little "genuine regard" for the student.
"The inappropriate relationship was not a "one-off". It was sustained for a considerable period of time. It involved a number of sexual encounters.
"There is no evidence which satisfies the tribunal that the respondent even now recognises the seriousness of her misconduct."
The teacher was censured, and had her registration cancelled.
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