KEY POINTS:
A young American teacher has left the Far North after his first teaching job in New Zealand went sour during an incident with truant teenage students in Kaitaia. Charles Briscoe, from California, began work as a science teacher at Kaitaia College at the start of this year.
College principal William Tailby said Mr Briscoe had several years' teaching experience, was a popular teacher and the students liked him. It was his first job in New Zealand.
On August 10, after little more than six months at the college, Mr Briscoe was grabbed by his shirt and held by the front seat passenger in a moving car which was full of truant students from the college.
He was forced to move with the car to avoid being injured as it left a house across from the college, where five students had earlier been drinking. He was released after the car had gone about 3m, according to police, and was not hurt.
Mr Briscoe is understood to have crossed the road to retrieve a ball from a yard at the house where the five students had gathered.
Mr Tailby said Mr Briscoe had "indicated an intention to leave the district" soon afterwards.
Mr Tailby said that of the five students involved in the incident, three had been stood down from the college but had now returned to classes. The remaining two boys had been suspended pending their referral to a Board of Trustees disciplinary committee, which set out conditions for their return to the college. One had met the conditions and had returned, the other had not, said Mr Tailby.
The Herald understands Mr Briscoe left Kaitaia to follow up on job offers from schools in Hamilton and Henderson. A Kaitaia police officer investigating the incident after a complaint from Mr Briscoe said yesterday, "It's not stacking up to be a lot in it. It may be a comedy of errors really."
He said the car had travelled about 3m and the teacher did not appear to have lost his footing. The officer said it seemed as if the driver was not initially aware of the teacher being held by a passenger because he (the driver) had called out "let him go". He thought the student responsible for grabbing Mr Briscoe may not have known he was a teacher.
"He just had this guy coming at him," the officer said.
Everyone had been "upfront and frank" during the investigation and he expected it would be about a week-and-a-half before inquiries were complete and a decision made on whether any charges would be laid against the 17-year-old students directly involved.
In the meantime, parents of several of the boys were consulting lawyers, he said.
