A Queensland teacher has been banned indefinitely after kissing, groping and sending thousands of inappropriate emails to students.
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) was told about the teacher’s inappropriate conduct involving three girls that spanned seven years.
The tribunal was told the teacher said to one student she was “very attractive,” “you don’t realise how attractive you are” and that he “overheard some year 10 boys saying that they wanted to f*** you.”
The student alleged the teacher repeatedly touched her buttocks, hugged her and gave her his personal mobile number to send text messages.
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He allegedly told another student she had nothing to worry about losing her virginity because he knew should would be good at it.
“You’re good at everything else, so you’ll be good at this too,” he said to her.
QCAT was told he hugged and kissed another vulnerable student multiple times and told her she was beautiful.
He sent her more than 2700 emails over two years using school email accounts saying she was a “sweetie” and commenting on her looks: “Loved the outfit, maybe something different… or less!”
He also emailed her naked images of himself.
The student said the teacher put his hands under her shirt or underwear multiple times and gave her gifts including perfume and jewellery.
Authorities also discovered inappropriate images on a department file server of female students taken at school swimming carnivals.
During an investigation the teacher said he engaged in a “digital relationship” with one of the students, exchanging images after she had graduated.
“Whether or not the images were exchanged while Student C was a student or afterwards does not detract from the inappropriateness of the conduct,” the tribunal ruled.
“(The teacher) was not a young, immature or inexperienced teacher when these inappropriate behaviours occurred with students as young as 14 years old.
“There was a significant age and life experience gap between the teacher and each of the three students and therefore a significant power imbalance.
“We find that (the teacher) should be prohibited from reapplying for registration or permission to teach indefinitely.”
