Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris fined $4700 for employing two unregistered teachers

The principal of an independent Alice Springs school has pleaded guilty to employing two unregistered teachers – with one of them employed for almost six months. Find out why he did it.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris leaves Alice Springs Local Court with lawyer John Stirk.

An Alice Springs school principal – who also sits on the town council – has pleaded guilty to employing unregistered teachers at his school.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris faced Alice Springs Local Court on May 15 and was fined $4700 for employing two unregistered teachers under his watch last year.

In his sentencing, Judge Neill questioned how Morris could “fail to pay attention to the basic elements” when picking teachers for his school, but still spared the principal of a conviction.

Morris’s defence lawyer John Stirk said his client didn’t know why he hired the unregistered teachers.

“Why it happened you honour, my client and I have discussed that, and said he doesn’t really know,” Mr Stirk said to the judge.

The court heard the two teachers were employed in 2023, and that Morris had already received a warning in 2022 about having an unregistered teacher employed for 15 days at his school.

One of the teachers, Patricia Parrilla Herraiz, was employed for 180 days unregistered and had sent an email to Morris questioning if she needed to be registered to work as a teacher, according to prosecutor John Bortoli.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris with students Malikai Hayes, Keylin Peters, Adrian Nelson and Jahquille Stuart. Picture: Grenville Turner

Mr Bortoli told the court that between January 31 to December 5 Ms Herraiz taught science, math, and English to students in years four to six.

The other teacher, Shihab Abdul Rahman, had been given authorisation to teach at another school, but Morris hired him at Yipirinya without registration, according to Mr Bortoli.

Mr Rahman worked at the school for 87 days, between July 18 and November 30, Mr Bortoli said.

Mr Bortoli said that all teachers must be registered and searchable by their last name or number online, and that schools had reporting requirements to fulfil relating to those teachers, which were not properly reported under Morris.

Mr Stirk argued that his client has now put steps in place to ensure that this wouldn’t happen again, and also noted that recording a conviction would be detrimental for the school and Morris’s reputation.

“Social prejudice in respect to criminal conviction may be so great that the individual could continue to be punished in the greater future,” Mr Stirk said.

Prosecutor Mr Bortoli said while there have been 20 cases of teachers working unregistered in the last two years, this was the first time an employer was before a judge for the offence.

Mr Bortoli argued that with such a transient population in the Territory, a message needed to be sent that this is “taken very seriously.”

“Registration is essential to ensure that teachers are fit and proper persons,” he said.