Teacher continued to be paid full salary for eight months after sexual abuse claims finally aired
A state school teacher who was stood down amid historic allegations he groomed a student and got her pregnant in the 1980s was paid his full salary for eight months.
Tasmania
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A TASMANIAN teacher remained on full pay for eight months after he was stood down amid allegations he’d groomed a vulnerable student and got her pregnant back in 1989.
Mark Philip Crocker, 66, was jailed last September after the Mercury published explosive allegations from one of his former colleagues, which led to his being stood down from a Launceston school.
Crocker remained employed by the Education Department despite widespread knowledge of his crime among staff at the time, who were told to “hush, hush” after their principal told them the teacher in question had resigned in Hobart.
According to a newly-published Supreme Court of Tasmania decision, Crocker was notified in September 2020 that a complaint had been made about his actions in 1989.
For a short time, he was suspended from teaching on full pay, with the Teachers Registration Board suspending his registration on the ground he posed a risk of harm to students.
The following month, Tim Bullard, the Department of Education secretary, advised Crocker that because he was suspended and unable to teach, he would no longer be paid his salary.
“I now determine that you are no longer suspended on full pay … as your teacher registration is suspended, you are prohibited from teaching and I direct that you must not enter any Department of Education school,” Mr Bullard wrote in a letter to Crocker.
But Crocker applied to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, seeking a review of that decision, arguing his suspension was beyond his control and he was therefore entitled to be paid a salary.
The commission then directed Mr Bullard to reinstate Crocker on suspension with full pay, which he was paid until his resignation on June 6 last year.
Mr Bullard appealed the decision to continue paying Crocker until that point to the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Alan Blow, in dismissing Mr Bullard’s appeal said while an employee who did not perform any work duties was not entitled to a salary unless he or she had some entitling circumstance, Crocker did in this case because of “circumstances beyond his control”.
“If it was true that the teacher had engaged in a sexual relationship with a student in 1989, it would possibly follow that he had no moral justification to pursue a claim for full pay during the period when his registration was suspended,” Chief Justice Blow said.
“However, as at October 2, 2020, no court or tribunal had made any finding as to the truth or otherwise of the allegations of sexual misconduct, and it was not part of the secretary’s role to make any finding as to their truth or falsity or to assess their credibility.”
Crocker pleaded guilty to the persistent sexual abuse of a child or young person and was jailed for four years, with a non-parole period of two years.
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