Two West Australian teachers have been banned from working in schools for four and two years, respectively, after admitting to inappropriate and sexualised behaviour with female students.
State Administrative Tribunal decisions have revealed that in both cases, the men’s conduct was “so serious that it is likely to bring the teaching profession into disrepute”. The teachers’ identities and the schools they worked at were suppressed in the court documents.
Both teachers have had their teaching licences disqualified. Credit: Louie Douvis
The teacher disqualified for four years was an acquaintance of the father of a year 11 student, who attended a separate school to the one the man taught at.
According to the published decision, the 49-year-old man was at a social event at that student’s house in April 2024 when he noticed she was upset.
He approached her and put his arm around her, asking her if she was OK before stating she was “an attractive woman”.
He later sat beside her on a couch and “began … massaging her by rubbing the top of her shoulders and running his hands down her arms”, and placed his hand on her thigh.
He asked for her number, which she gave him. He told her she wasn’t his student, so it wasn’t illegal.
While the girl was in the shower, the teacher knocked on the door and asked to come in and wash his hands.
Around 30 minutes later, the 49-year-old came into her bedroom, locked her door and started to hug and touch her, telling her, “I can make you feel good”.
She stood up to leave, but he grabbed her arm. She pulled away, unlocked the door and began calling for her father, saying “get him away from me, take that man away from me”.
The student was left “trembling and upset”, according to the court documents.
On April 14, the teacher sent a text message to her father reading: “I’m sorry for last night. I think there was a lot of misunderstanding. I struggle with interactions with people, I’m trying to get help and have reached out. Probably best if I keep to myself for a while.”
In the published decision, the Teachers Registration Board WA said the man had issues with alcohol addiction and depression, but those factors did not diminish the seriousness of what happened.
His teaching licence was disqualified, but he told the board he had no intention of returning to the profession.
In a separate incident, also recently finalised by the Teachers Registration Board, a 25-year-old maths teacher was teaching year 10 students in 2023 when a female student had taken a day off school to spend time with her boyfriend.
According to the published decision, in front of the class, the 25-year-old stated: “Oh [student A], the afterglow is really good.”
He then walked her to her next class, asking: “Was it OK? Did you feel safe? Was it good? Did you like it?”
The student reported the interaction.
While not disputing it was inappropriate, the teacher told the board the comments made regarding the girl’s relationship were “motivated by concern”.
In October 2023, he began taking photos with the same student and three others on his personal phone and Polaroid camera at the year 10 river cruise.
He then took photos with those students in a photo booth that had been set up on the boat.
The associate principal told him to stop, but he continued to take photos. He was again told to stop, but he lined up for the photo booth once more.
The associate principal directed the teacher to remain downstairs, away from students, for the rest of the evening and to get rid of the photos.
Instead, he approached student A and handed her the polaroids, asking her to return them to him secretly at school.
The court documents also revealed that, at the start of term 4, the teacher told his students he caught up with a woman he met online during the holidays.
He showed student A and another female student Polaroids of him and the woman lying in bed undressed, a number of photos of the two of them dining together, and a video of him shirtless at a pool.
When asked how they met, the teacher said he had posted a video on Snapchat lifting weights at the gym, and she sent him a message reading: “I want you to throw me around like you throw around those weights.”
During that year, the 25-year-old also overheard year 10 students discussing male genitals and told them “the penis is able to be moved like a bicep muscle”.
He has been disqualified from teaching for two years and is undertaking psychological counselling.
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