Dozens of educators have been reprimanded by the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal in the past year for conduct ranging from using excessive force on students to sexual harassment and assault. Katie Harris takes a deeper look at 20 decisions from the past year, what each teacher did, and the penalty they
Sex, fraud and violence: 20 teachers fall foul of Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal
Dozens of educators have been brought before the New Zealand Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal in the last year. Illustration / Andrew Louis
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A spokesperson for the Teaching Council said the vast majority of registered teachers would spend their careers positively impacting the lives of children and young people, without incident.
The Herald has summarised 20 decisions against teachers by the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal in the year to June 2024.
About a quarter have been granted name suppression*, meaning the public and their students may never know the teacher has committed misconduct.
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Not every case within that 12-month period has been included as the Herald has focused on teacher conduct that involved violence, fraudulence, criminal charges, inappropriate behaviour, or was sexual in nature.
Sean Cassidy
Ōtorohanga College teacher Sean Cassidy was censured and had his teaching licence cancelled after 29 child exploitation-related items, among other pornographic material, were found on his school laptop.
The laptop was seized and handed to police in 2018 after concerns were raised by an IT technician about his internet activity during school time.
After police advised they would not pursue criminal charges, later telling the Herald there was no evidence of criminal offending, the Complaints Assessment Committee commenced an investigation.
Cassidy claimed he was using legal adult websites to find a life partner and had no “unlawful sexual interest” in children.
This was dismissed and the August 2023 tribunal said the nature of the material he had accessed made his claims of passivity and a lack of interest in pornography “unbelievable”.
He had also alleged he had accessed the material on his own device and the school server had downloaded documents and communication automatically. This claim was also rejected.
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Of significant concern were the images which appeared to involve fathers or grandfathers engaged in sexual intercourse or other sexual activity with their daughters or teenage girls, the tribunal noted.
“The screenshots of messages containing extremely disturbing content about sexual activity with young family members casts a concerning light on Mr Cassidy’s role as a professional member of a school community.”
He was ordered to pay $18,757 in costs.
Seelandran Ramiah
Former James Cook High School assistant principal Seelandran Ramiah had his teaching registration cancelled after he engaged in inappropriate conduct with three students and a colleague.
Ramiah’s conduct included likely touching one student’s vagina at school and giving her a sex toy and sending her explicit photographs.
He sent her highly sexualised messages referencing genitalia, including:
“Honest. If we were alone and safe I would have had you on the floor with my face buried inside”.
On numerous occasions, the pair also exchanged nude, semi-nude or sexually explicit photographs.
He talked to two students about his sex life and relationships with others, including sexual relationships he supposedly had with other students.
As well as this he offered to send one of the students photos of himself ejaculating and sent a colleague photos of his penis.
Ramiah accepted his actions amounted to serious misconduct and acknowledged there was no way forward but to give up his teaching certificate and resign from the profession.
“He acknowledged the inappropriateness of his actions and said he has accepted the ‘very obvious’ consequences of them,” the May 2024 ruling said.
After being found guilty of serious misconduct by the Tribunal Ramiah was censured and ordered to pay $7684.
Miriama Harmer
Over two years then-principal Miriama Harmer dropped nearly $30,000 in cash withdrawals and payments at pubs, restaurants and a casino on her work credit card.
Harmer was working at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ātihaunui-ā-Pāpārangi in 2019 when she was accused of misappropriating or mismanaging funds.
The transaction history for the card showed she had made cash withdrawals at locations including the St Johns Club, Stellar restaurant, Bar restaurant, Rosie O’Grady’s Irish Pub and SkyCity casino.
“Harmer used some of the cash withdrawn using the Visa card for personal purposes, unrelated to the kura. She also used some of the funds to pay advanced wages and salary to kura staff, which was not the correct process.”
The misappropriation was first identified when an accountant conducting an audit in December 2018 expressed concern about unauthorised cash withdrawals.
An investigation was undertaken and Harmer later repaid the funds.
She resigned from her role and accepted her actions amounted to serious misconduct.
“Harmer said she had suffered a mental breakdown because of the stress and pressure placed on her in the lead-up to her conduct, which led to her actions,” the decision said.
Her lawyer submitted that, in accordance with tikanga, Harmer had taken restorative justice steps to heal her tapu and mana and sought to right her wrongdoings to the kura and the wider teaching community.
The December 2023 tribunal censured Harmer, cancelled her registration and ordered her to pay $5394 in costs.
Pauline Murphy
Pauline Murphy had claimed she was the victim of a “witch hunt” by disgruntled employees and parents.
However, the tribunal disagreed and found the Feilding daycare owner guilty of serious misconduct for her behaviour toward children and staff members.
Her conduct included telling one staffer that she was too fat to eat KFC and refusing to allow the same staffer time to buy a new bra from a Warehouse store five minutes away from the centre after it broke at work.
“The tribunal was particularly troubled by the minutes of a staff meeting which were produced in evidence which recorded a threat of a verbal warning ‘to all staff about the bitching that is happening’ and reference to ‘the lawyer will take action’,” the decision said.
The tribunal also found she yanked a child and smacked him on the hand.
“Murphy’s misconduct occurred across a range of areas of her professional practice including unprofessional and threatening behaviour towards employees, breaches of Ministry of Education regulations for health and safety; ill treatment of children.”
Some of the allegations against her, including that she failed to provide first aid to injured children, were not upheld.
Murphy was censured, ordered to pay nearly $40,000 and had her teaching registration cancelled.
John Mallory
John Mallory used his work laptop on thousands of occasions to access pornographic content, including content based around student-teacher relationships and non-consent.
Issues surrounding his computer use were initially raised in early 2020 when as part of an IT process a colleague found pornography bookmarked on Malloy’s laptop.
This was reported to Karamu High School principal Dionne Thomas but there was no evidence to suggest there was anything inappropriate.
The following year Malloy was having issues with his laptop and because they could not be addressed immediately, his laptop was backed up and sent away for repair.
A few months later he requested help setting up two-factor authentication on his device, but when he opened the device for his colleague to assist, a video of adults having sex was on the screen.
The colleague reported it to Thomas, who immediately uplifted the laptop.
A forensic digital report found 5850 entries relating to sites which would be considered inappropriate on a school computer.
In addition to confirming which websites had been accessed and on how many occasions the report identified approximately 100 of the search terms were considered of “significant concern” given Malloy’s position.
These included “reluctant sex”, “non-consent sex”, “forced sex” and “teen sex”.
Approximately 200 other web pages identified story content titles that centred around inappropriate relationships and relationships with minors.
One was titled “teen schoolgirl gets knocked up by teacher”, another “Teacher learns a lesson”.
Mallory admitted his behaviour, showed remorse for his conduct and said he only intended to access material where participants or characters were over 18.
He stopped teaching and told the tribunal he did not intend to apply for a new practising certificate.
The December 2023 Tribunal censured Mallory for his conduct, placed an annotation on the public register for the next two years and imposed conditions if he ever returned to practising.
Teacher B
Teacher B had already been referred to the council twice for issues related to alcohol misuse when she was convicted of drink driving and careless driving.
The Conduct Assessment Committee acknowledged the teacher suffered from alcoholism, was remorseful and that the incident took place during a period of personal difficulty for her.
The ruling noted the teacher did not wish to return to teaching and requested that the outcome of the proceedings be cancellation of her registration.
The tribunal obliged and no costs order was made.
Roberta Little
Te Kura o Waikaremoana was already “vulnerable” when then-principal Roberta Little and a co-offender stole more than $100,000 from the coffers.
From 2015 to 2017 Little and the then board of trustee’s chair committed the offending at the bi-lingual primary school in Tuai.
“Ms Little engaged in a sustained campaign of theft from her small school. She was in a trusted and respected position.”
Little pleaded guilty to one charge of theft by a person in a special relationship and eight charges of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage.
She was sentenced to nine months home detention in the Gisborne District Court in August 2020.
The November 2023 tribunal censured Little, cancelled her registration and ordered her to pay a little more than $2000 in costs.
Amanda Klein
While working as a team leader at the Curious Kea early childhood centre in the Waikato, Amanda Klein left a child unattended in a cot while she went to a park with two other staff members and children.
According to the agreed summary of facts she falsely claimed that the child was not unattended when she was initially spoken to and falsified the sleep charts to show the child had been checked while she was at the park.
“Klein expressed her feelings of guilt, shame, and remorse. She resigned. Mrs Klein explained that her panic at the enormity of the situation was why she had initially blurted out that she remained in the centre and why she had altered the records,” the ruling said.
She accepted the charge and did not deny the gravity of the situation but noted there were “extenuating circumstances” surrounding her conduct.
“Klein says she was not told there was a child asleep in the sleep room. In any event, Mrs Klein accepted that as the person responsible and the only member of the Sparrows and Bluebirds teaching team onsite from 3.30pm she had ultimate responsibility,” the ruling said.
The tribunal censured Klein and suspended her practising certificate for six months following the November 2023 decision.
After that period she was also required to undertake a professional development course and for the next 18 months she must show any education employer a copy of the decision.
Teacher F
Teacher F was censured and had conditions placed on her practising certificate after she lied to staff and led them to believe they and their students were in potential danger.
The teacher had claimed in 2021 that she was receiving threatening messages from ex-boyfriend Daniel, who did not exist.
She falsely said she had been granted a protection order against him and sent abusive messages to herself purporting to be from him.
One message stated: “You’ll wish you were dead after what I’m going to do to you”.
During the course of the school’s investigation, she expressed regret over her actions and explained that she had previously been in an abusive relationship with a woman.
“She said everything she told staff happened, for example that up until 2020, [her ex] had been sending her abusive text messages. She thought people would take her previous experiences more seriously if the abusive ex-partner in question was a man.”
The tribunal said, and Teacher F agreed, that her behaviour reflected adversely on her fitness to be a teacher and may bring the profession into disrepute.
Conditions imposed on her certificate include advising any education employers or future employers of the April 2024 decision for three years, continue attending counselling for two years and engaging a mentor.
She was ordered to pay just over $6000 in costs.
Teacher G
Teacher G was working at an early childhood centre in early 2022 when she was accused of consuming alcohol at work
On January 26 she left work during her lunch break and purchased a 1.25L bottle of a Nitro vodka and guarana drink and poured it into a Gatorade bottle before returning to work.
The agreed summary of facts said at several points throughout the afternoon she was observed consuming the alcohol and when asked what it was she claimed it was a “new sugar-free flavour” of the beverage.
At a staff meeting that evening she was unsteady on her feet, confused, unfocused and slurring her words.
At around 6:30 she was struggling to walk straight and another teacher stopped her from driving home.
“[Teacher G] became upset and explained it was the anniversary of her partner’s death. The [other teacher] called an Uber to take [Teacher G] home.”
It wasn’t the first time Teacher G been before the tribunal.
In 2020 she was found guilty of misconduct and censured after she received two convictions for drink driving.
For her recent misconduct, the tribunal found in February 2024 her actions met all the tests for serious misconduct.
She was censured, ordered to pay $1250 in costs and had an annotation added to the register.
Any practising certificates issued to her in the next five years will also require her to provide a copy of the decision to any education employer and she must provide six-monthly updates on her rehabilitation from and relationship with alcohol, as well as her mental health.
“If there are any future issues, whilst a matter to be decided if and when that occurs, the respondent may likely find that the tribunal takes a less optimistic view and cancels the respondent’s registration,” the tribunal warned.
Teacher H
While employed at the University of Canterbury, Teacher H sent a 16-year-old student inappropriate messages and emails saying that he loved her and had a crush on her.
The teen was a high-school student who was taking a course the then 33-year-old tutored at the university.
Over a two-month period in 2021, Teacher H sent the student inappropriate emails from a private account, describing his personal life and making romantic advances towards her.
The tribunal found the conduct demonstrated his failure to respect professional boundaries with learners and was likely to bring the profession into disrepute.
Should he return to teaching he must undergo two years of mentoring focused on setting and maintaining professional boundaries and be under the supervision of a senior manager.
He was also ordered to inform any prospective employers in the education sector of the decision for 12 months following its release.
Teacher G was voluntarily deregistered in May 2022 and no longer works in the teaching profession.
“[He] had expressed to the [investigators] that he would like to teach again in the future, although he acknowledged that he could not do so presently due to his health circumstances (anxiety and depression).”
The tribunal also ordered him to pay $5320.
Teacher I
After attending a scheduled counselling session on July 1 2021, Teacher I returned to the classroom impaired by alcohol.
Earlier that day she had informed the principal that she was feeling anxious and unable to cope in the classroom.
She was released for the morning and agreed to return by 2pm, however when she got back to class she was under the influence.
When another teacher came into the classroom she saw Teacher I was shaking, crying and appeared panicked.
Teacher I had previously informed the school of her alcohol issues and she had given her leave to attend counselling sessions alongside a wellbeing plan.
The tribunal found in September 2023 her actions met the threshold for serious misconduct, which she accepted.
Since the incident, the teacher has undertaken counselling and abstained from alcohol.
“She said she understood the impact of her actions on the people around her, especially her students and colleagues, and accepted her behaviour had been unprofessional. She apologised to the committee for her conduct,” the ruling said.
The tribunal censured the teacher in September last year and added an annotation to the register for two years.
For three years following the decision she is also required to inform any employers in the sector of it and supply a copy of the ruling, agree to undertake alcohol screenings and develop a relapse prevention plan.
She was also required to pay $3580 in costs.
Vivienne Prebble
Vivienne Prebble already had multiple driving-related convictions when she was pulled over in Australia’s Alice Springs and blew three times over the local limit.
She pleaded guilty and was convicted of the latest offending in March 2018 but the tribunal said she did not report this to the council despite being made aware of it after her previous offending.
She had disclosed her convictions to the relevant bodies in Australia and her legal counsel submitted at the time Prebble had been there for eight years and had no plans to relocate back.
Her legal counsel said it simply never crossed Prebble’s mind that she needed to disclose her Australian conviction to the New Zealand statutory body.
The tribunal was unconvinced, and rejected the submission that the requirement was not “immediately apparent”.
She was censured and had an annotation added to the register for two years.
If she ever returns to teaching in New Zealand she is also required to inform any future employers.
No costs order was made.
Junior Leaupepe
Junior Leaupepe was working at Ōtara’s Flat Bush Primary School in July 2019 when he lifted a child off a chair by his T-shirt and threw him on to a deck outside.
The incident - which left the child grazed and bruised - occurred after the 10-year-old took another student’s work and refused to give it back.
In 2021 Leaupepe pleaded guilty to assaulting a child and was granted a discharge without conviction in the Manukau District Court.
The tribunal found his actions amounted to serious misconduct and therefore censured him and added an annotation to the register for one year following the September 2023 decision.
For the same period, Leaupepe must provide a copy of the decision to prospective teaching employers and undertake a professional development course related to student behaviour management.
He was also ordered to pay $1582 in costs.
Latham Martin
Former Westland High School’s Board of Trustees chair and district councillor Latham Martin sent inappropriate photos to several students and asked one student words to the effect of “how would you feel if I asked you to suck c**k?”.
Other allegations, which the tribunal found were proven, included asking one student to hang out at 11pm, placing his hand near one teen’s crotch and sending photos of his girlfriend in a bikini or bra to students.
One of the complainants said following an athletics day his legs were sore and Martin said “I know how to fix cramps”, and started rubbing his thigh.
The conduct came to light after one of the students told another teacher, while at the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival, who then informed the school’s principal.
Martin, who was employed in a non-teaching role at the school, denied all allegations of a sexual or intimate nature with the boys.
“Ultimately Mr Martin’s position, as stated in cross-examination, was that all the boys were lying,” the decision said.
Overall, the tribunal found the six complainants to be credible and reliable young persons.
“They expressed surprise that they were being accused of dishonesty and a predetermined plan to take down Mr Martin. Several of the complainants consistently stated that they wouldn’t be wasting their time in giving evidence against Mr Martin, given their other commitments since they have left school.”
The June 2023 tribunal said Martin, in his mid to late 20s, was overly interested in teenage schoolboys.
“This tendency extends to excessive and at times unwanted attempts at communication and contact, often with sexual innuendo, or more directly at times.”
A year on from the tribunal hearing, Martin’s teaching registration was cancelled and he was ordered to pay $34,000 in costs.
Ahead of this decision, his legal representation argued the interactions occurred in the months following a freak lawnmower accident his client had been through and people become “very emotional” and often irrational after near-death experiences.
“It was also said in the submissions that ‘This is common knowledge and does not need a specialist report’,” the ruling said.
The tribunal did not accept this and pointed to evidence showing some of the conduct occurred before the accident.
While Martin had argued during the hearing the witnesses were essentially, as the tribunal said, “lying on oath”, the penalty ruling revealed he later appeared to accept some of it did happen.
The decision noted that the tribunal was surprised to hear he was still employed by Westland High School, given the proven conduct and when the school was queried, it confirmed he had not provided a copy of the tribunal’s finding.
“Martin has not displayed any real acceptance of the actual proven conduct. We consider that his claimed insight is not genuine across the entirety of the conduct and that he has not taken responsibility for it.”
Graham Elsmore
Wellington teacher Graham Elsmore had his registration cancelled and was ordered to pay nearly $8000 in costs after the tribunal found he propositioned a then-student for sex.
The former student alleged Elsmore had given him a jockstrap, wrestled him and said he would like to have sex with him.
“Over the next three or four years I struggled with my identity. It changed how I reacted to things. I tried to become more macho. I also questioned my sexual orientation. It affected how I thought about women,” the former student wrote.
He did not report the incident at the time but told his parents several months later, who supported him but never informed the school.
After leaving school, Elsmore’s name faded to the back of his mind but a LinkedIn message from the teacher in 2017 brought back memories of the incident
Elsmore denied the accusations but said they arm wrestled on one occasion for a short time.
While Elsmore initially engaged with the tribunal, he later said he was unwell and did not wish to participate further.
In April 2024 the tribunal found the complainant’s evidence to be balanced and careful, whereas it saw Elsmore’s denials as either unreliable or not credible.
“Given the level of conduct, we consider Mr Elsmore is not of good character or fit to be a teacher.”
Teacher J
Before becoming a teacher, Teacher J falsely submitted timesheets for 164 days of work at Northpower when she had not been there and was later convicted for submitting the documents.
“The total amount of hours the defendant claimed to have worked when she was in fact absent, amounted to $23,008,” the September 2023 decision said.
The tribunal found her conviction met the threshold for serious misconduct and did not reflect well on the profession or her fitness to teach.
“[Teacher J] was remorseful for her actions and said she had learned her lesson. [Teacher J] told the [Complaints Assessment Committee] she loved being a teacher, as it was her passion.”
For this finding, Teacher J was censured, had an annotation added to the register for two years and had conditions placed on her practising certificate for the same period.
These stipulated that for two years she must provide a copy of the decision to any teaching employers and must not undertake any teaching role that involves the handling of any money or management of finances.
No costs order was made as the charge had arisen out of a conviction.
Helen Taylor-Young
Just hours after Helen Taylor-Young was sentenced for drink driving she was stopped by police and charged with driving while disqualified, to which she later pleaded guilty.
As well as the convictions, the former Victory Primary School principal was accused of drinking alcohol or being under the influence of it at school or events associated with her position and taking over a month to disclose the earlier conviction to the school.
Both the tribunal and Taylor-Young agreed an adverse finding should be made against her in respect of the convictions and that her conduct amounted to serious misconduct.
“Attending at school under the influence (and at school events) leave us in no doubt that this was serious misconduct. The slow disclosure to her employer and the Teaching Council compounds this.”
In December 2023 the tribunal censured the Nelson teacher and added a note to the register for two years stating she had been “censured and conditions apply”.
Those conditions include a ban from returning to teaching until she can prove she has received treatment for alcohol abuse, with a health professional stating she is successfully abstaining from alcohol.
As well as this she must sign an affidavit stating she is successfully abstaining from alcohol and has been doing so for at least six months.
For the next two years, before starting a new role, she must provide the Teaching Council with a relapse prevention plan for it to approve and inform any employers. Upon employment as a teacher she is also required to engage a mentor.
Taylor-Young was also ordered to pay just over $3000 in costs.
Uputaua Muaiava
On January 18 2021 Uputaua Muaiava was sentenced to nine months home detention after pleading guilty to dozens of charges of evading or attempting to evade tax assessment or payment.
Muaiava and her husband’s offending involved a repeated pattern of tax evasion through their business supplying labour to growers in South Auckland.
An investigation found the organisation charged GST on invoices and engaged workers to provide labour but did not file any PAYE or GST returns.
Judge Winter said in his sentencing notes Muaiava evaded her tax obligations by wilfully and knowingly encouraging the tax evasion arrangements devised by her husband.
“I view her culpability as wilful blindness to her husband’s offending. I accept the defendant is of good character and very remorseful,” the judge wrote.
The matter was referred to the tribunal, where it was established that the convictions brought the profession into disrepute and said it would have amounted to serious misconduct if that were the charge.
Her legal counsel submitted her client accepted an adverse finding would be made but emphasised that she continued to be employed within her school despite the convictions and has remained an effective teacher.
She told the tribunal that Muaiava said her marriage was abusive and her husband’s prison sentence had put an end to the abuse.
The tribunal found only deregistration would sufficiently reflect the impact of her offending on her fitness to teach and its tendency to lower the profession’s reputation.
Teacher E
The tribunal found a Palmerston North teacher guilty of serious misconduct and censured him after he admitted to play fighting with three students on several occasions.
He also admitted to swearing at one of the students while he was play-fighting with her.
“[The teacher] accepted his behaviour was inappropriate at times but emphasised that his touching of students was never of a sexual nature. He said he would err on the side of caution and not touch students in future,” the ruling said.
The tribunal said in its December 2023 decision that the teacher was relatively inexperienced at the time and was remorseful.
“As such, we accept that he has strong rehabilitative prospects and there is little chance of repetition.”
He was censured, had conditions imposed on his practising certificate, including to engage a mentor and undertake a professional development course, and ordered to pay just over $6000 in costs.
An annotation lasting the length of these conditions was added to the register and for 18 months following the decision he is required to provide a copy to any employer.
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
*Random letters have been selected to differentiate between the teachers with name suppression.
