Teacher who had sex with student, 17, suspended without pay by Department of Education
A TEACHER who admitted to having a sexual relationship with a Year 12 student had previously been investigated for falsifying student assessments.
NSW
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A TEACHER who admitted to having a sexual relationship with a Year 12 student had previously been investigated for falsifying student assessments.
The Daily Telegraph has viewed a letter penned by the sports teacher — known only as PJ — to the Department of Education where he admits to falsifying Year 11 and Year 12 student assessments in the Sport, Fitness and Recreation 2 unit class over three years at a Port Stephens school.
The 52-year-old teacher — whose identity has been suppressed — came to public attention this week when he got off criminal charges of having unlawful sex with a 17-year-old female student because she was not in his class at the time.
The man admitted to having sex with the girl three times in his house and in his van in 2015.
A year before the affair, the teacher wrote a letter to the department’s Employee Performance and Conduct Electorate admitting to falsely indicating that his students in 2012, 2013 and 2014 had completed 70 work placement hours for the course.
He also admitted taking assessment reports “whiting-out” names and writing others in their place.
In the letter he writes: “I (PJ) admit to and take full responsibility for my actions”.
He blamed his bad behaviour on the “state of despair” he fell into in December 2012 after his marriage broke down when he found out his wife had an affair.
“It was during this state of depression and inability to function normally that I falsified the above mentioned documentation,” he wrote.
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The Department of Education declined to comment on what disciplinary action was taken against the teacher for falsifying the assessments, saying it was subject to privacy laws.
PJ was arrested in February 2016 and charged with three counts of having sex with a 17- to 18-year-old under his special care.
The prosecution against him was stayed by District Court Judge Tanya Bright as his defence team successfully argued that for the charges to be proven, the man had to have been teaching the girl at the time.
The girl had not been in his sports class since 2013.
After his arrest the Department of Education removed the man from the school and put him in an administrative role in a mid-north coast office.
Yesterday, almost two years since the teacher was charged, he was suspended without pay, with a department spokesman saying the “action was taken pending a disciplinary investigation”.