Brisbane man turns life around to become popular teacher at the very school he made trouble at

A self-confessed “naughty kid” has shared his story about how he turned his life around after being kicked out of home at age 12 to teaching at a Brisbane northside school.

When Corey Gieskens was just 12, he came home one day to find all his belongings packed into a box.

The next thing he knew, he found himself sitting at a police station with nowhere to go after his father reached the end of his tether.

The self-confessed “frustrated naughty kid” has shared his personal story from homelessness to teacher, in a bid to inspire others after turning his life around.

Coming from a “very dysfunctional” family life, Mr Gieskens “bounced between” his separated parents from the age of five.

Approaching his teenage years, he says he was getting “pretty rough around the edges” and was involved in “some pretty ordinary activity”.

“I was wagging school for a few weeks straight, being really naughty to get attention, and I thought that was a way my father would give it to me,” Mr Gieskens said.

“One day I came home and my dad had packed up my bedroom, put all the boxes in the back of the car and took me to the local police station.

“He told a policeman he would drive the car until the petrol tank was half empty and that’s where he was going to leave me, unless the police found somewhere for me to stay.”

School teacher Corey Gieskens is a former resident of the Carinity Orana accommodation for homeless youth in Brisbane. Picture: Contributed

Mr Gieskens ended up moving into Carinity Orana, a house at Bald Hills, which is celebrating 40 years of supporting homeless youth and those at risk of homelessness.

He spent just over a year living there.

“It was initially a bit scary as a lot of the other kids that were there were a lot more hardened and older,” he said.

“Having youth workers in the house who were there to encourage me regardless of whether I was naughty or not was great, and I attended school the whole time I was there.

“I was very happy there as I was getting the attention that I was craving.

“I felt loved and I felt really supported there, up until then I hadn’t felt that in my life. That unconditional love was very foreign to me.”

Mr Gieskens says if it weren’t for Carinity Orana, he believes he would have likely ended up in prison.

The troubled teen went on to become a teacher at Pine Rivers State High School – the very school at which he was a troublesome disengaged truant a few decades earlier.

“The school that I was at during my time at Orana, I actually went back to as a teacher and some of the staff who taught me were still there,” he aid.

“The comments around that time were that people were surprised I wasn’t in prison.

“Apart from being a school teacher, I’ve been very active helping young people outside of school and I’ve helped many, many homeless kids through youth groups.”