Teacher censured for sex with student

A teacher who ended a 16-month sexual relationship with a student only after his wife became pregnant has been accused of tainting the reputation of his profession.

The man, who has not been identified, has been officially censured for serious misconduct and deregistered as a teacher because of the relationship which started at a school camp.

The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal said in its decision the teacher admitted he had behaved in an unprofessional manner and that the relationship with the girl, who was 16 when it started, was inappropriate.

According to the tribunal's summary of facts the teacher started texting the girl after asking her for her mobile phone number in February 2007.

The following month he arranged for her to spend the night with him, gave her alcohol and they had sex. Throughout the year they met at his house, during school hours and overnight and often had sex.

The student described in some detail the lengths the teacher went to to keep the relationship hidden from his wife and how she would wag school to meet him - often at his home where they would have sex in his bedroom.

The student left school at the end of the second term of 2007, but the relationship continued until the middle of 2008 when the teacher told her his wife was pregnant.

The relationship broke down and she complained.

The tribunal said intimate relationships between teachers and students were entirely unacceptable.

"Although we cannot think that it needs to be said again, teachers are ... in a position of trust and confidence of the highest order, and it is always a gross abuse of that position of trust and confidence for them to allow a relationship of intimacy to arise."

The tribunal added that the teacher had "tainted the reputation of the teaching profession" by his serious misconduct.