NSW teachers hit with suspensions, sacked and black-listed
Inside the department it’s called the ‘Not To Be Employed’ list: a blacklist of problematic – or in some cases criminal – ex-teachers. These are the teachers whose crimes hit the headlines.
Education
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The number of public school teachers fired and black-listed for criminal convictions has fallen to a 13-year low, with only nine convictions across the sector in the last reported period thanks to “eyes everywhere”.
Between 2017 and 2021, 12 criminal teachers on average were disqualified from teaching each year, down from 16 in the five years previous.
In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, 18 other teachers were dismissed for indecent treatment of students including inappropriate physical contact, abuse or neglect.
Adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr Greg said additional safeguards introduced over the last few years, particularly post-Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, are part of the reason for the decline.
“Now people are extremely aware of what might happen, and there are eyes everywhere,” he said.
“I think it’s much more difficult for a teacher who would exploit a young person for them to do so.”
Students and their families shouldn’t be complacent, however. Dr Carr-Gregg said “charismatic” teachers can make adolescents in particular feel safe, valued and listened to, but those with bad intentions can exploit their charges’ vulnerability.
“Fortunately that doesn’t happen too often, and when it does, there’s a very low threshold of tolerance for those transgressions.”
For these NSW public and private school teachers, their careers ended when they either committed crimes against students or other kids.
ERIC WONG
28-year-old teacher Eric Wong was banned from attending Cammeraygal High School in North Sydney, communicating with its students and was suspended without pay by the Department of Education after the public school science teacher took hundreds of secret, sexually suggestive photos and videos of his female students.
Mr Wong pleaded guilty to two charges of filming a person’s private parts without consent, and is awaiting sentencing.
He was caught in the act by one of his students late last year, and subsequent investigations uncovered nearly 400 indecent images filmed up girls’ skirts and down their blouses. Police described Mr Wong’s behaviour as “brazen, predatory and opportunist”.
MONICA ELIZABETH YOUNG
Disgraced Western Sydney schoolteacher Monica Young is currently behind bars and will be eligible for parole in October after preying on a 14-year-old student at the all-boys school she worked at in 2020.
Ms Young, who sent sexually explicit messages, nude photographs and pornographic videos of herself to her teenage victim pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual intercourse with a child under 16.
The abuse took place during Sydney’s first Covid lockdowns, when students began learning from home. Ms Young apologised and told the court she knew the so-called ‘relationship’ was “extremely wrong”. The judge found her unlikely to reoffend.
CODY MICHAEL REYNOLDS
37-year-old former English teacher Cody Michael Reynolds, formerly the head of his department at pricey eastern suburbs Jewish school Moriah College, was busted with a trove of more than 1000 examples of child abuse material.
According to prosecutors, in some of the most disturbing content toddlers were sexually abused at gunpoint. Mr Reynolds pleaded guilty to possessing or controlling child abuse material, and using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material, and was jailed for 18 months. There is no suggestion Mr Reynolds harmed any of his Moriah College students.
PAUL HUNT
Former Taree English teacher and community radio host Paul Hunt used a pornographic website to generate “lifelike” images of children engaged in sexual activities with adults and shared them with a like-minded dark web user, taking special interest in an incestuous theme.
The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to disseminating child abuse material and was sentenced to 12 months behind bars. He’ll be eligible for parole on June 19.
UNAMED TEACHER
A former member of staff at a prestigious Sydney high school, who can’t be named for legal reasons, will likely never work in a school again after undertaking an illicit sexual relationship with an underage student more than a decade ago.
When the teacher was 18, he began an intimate relationship with the then-14-year-old girl, with the sexual abuse lasting three years.
The music teacher, who was a talented pianist, pleaded guilty to 11 charges relating to the relationship, and faced sentencing on May 25, 2023.
He was sentenced to a community corrections order for three years and must remin within 50km of his home for up to 12 months.
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