Principal accessed porn for 'escapsim'

No one else witnessed the illicit material. Photo / iStock

A principal who disabled his South Island primary school's internet protection system to access porn did so as a form of "escapism" a disciplinary hearing was told today.

The man, who has interim name suppression, appeared before the Teachers' Disciplinary Tribunal in Wellington where he lost his practising certificate for at least 18 months.

He pleaded guilty to disabling the school's internet content filtering system and accessing pornography sites during school hours between November 2014 and January this year.

By disabling the filter, pupils as young as 5 would have had no blocking system in place.

Netsafe investigated his computer and noted the material was "objectionable", but not illegal.

A former colleague said the man was professional and passionate about teaching when he worked at another school.

"I always found his interaction with kids professional," she said.

The witness said the principal's actions were "totally inappropriate" and naive, but she did not think they were malicious.

"He wouldn't do anything to intentionally harm students."

Asked if she was concerned about the former principal being around children now, she responded, "probably not" as "he didn't do it around children".

The man's lawyer David Martin said his client suffered from depression and needed ongoing psychiatric treatment.

He started to recover when he took the job as a principal but then relapsed.

"The stress and depression he was under led him to do what he did as a form of escapism," he said.

Mr Martin said the former principal owned up to what he did and resigned.

He also said no one else was exposed to explicit material.

Mr Martin said it would be a "tragic loss of opportunity if he was no longer to able to continue to students' learning".

The former principal was not in a fit state to teach and Mr Martin argued for a suspension until he had a clean bill of health.

He was suspended from holding a practising certificate for at least 18 months and ordered to pay $2323.15 costs.

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