Teachers point finger at criminal students

The Age

ROTTEN APPLES: Teachers claim there are many more students than teachers who are criminals.

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Under-fire teachers are turning the focus back on students after the Sunday Star-Times last week revealed dozens of teachers are still working in the classroom despite having serious criminal convictions.

The Star-Times revealed last week that 57 teachers have criminal convictions, with most remaining in the classroom, including one male teacher convicted of indecently assaulting a teenage girl, and others for violent assaults and fraud of more than $10,000.

The information came to light after an Official Information Act request to the Teachers Council, the profession's watchdog body that can ban teachers from schools or impose restrictions. Education Minister Anne Tolley said she is looking into improvements.

Teachers, however, claim there are many more students than teachers who are criminals. Some teachers spoke to the Star-Times on the understanding they would not be named for fear of repercussions from parents and students.

"There are students with grievous bodily harm, attempted rape, drugs and driving charges in our midst," a high school teacher said.

Some of these students brought drugs and alcohol to school, verbally abused, threatened and physically assaulted teachers.

They questioned how many other professionals had been stabbed in their offices, or at work. Two teachers were stabbed by students in class, a teacher in Te Puke and one in Auckland, in the past 18 months.

Teachers had no idea which students were convicted of dangerous, malicious crimes.

"There are students in classrooms with records of violent, aggravated offending and they are unknown to us," a teacher said.

The Education Ministry said it doesn't keep details about students with a criminal conviction.

Secondary teachers' union, the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA), has hit out at the government for failing to protect teachers from physical and verbal abuse by students at school.

In a paper to be released at its annual conference this month, the PPTA says it continues to lobby government and liaise with teachers about a plan to deal with students' violent and abusive behaviour. A group, Positive Behaviour for Learning, was set up after last year's behaviour summit.

"In spite of the pressure from PPTA and a growing public concern that secondary schools are not as safe as they should be, progress on the proposals in the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) action plan has been slow," PPTA says.

PPTA president Kate Gainsford said schools continued to be frustrated in their efforts for support and interventions that lessened the negative impact of students with conduct problems.

Secondary schools were stranded when it came to supporting students whose psychological, social, and sometimes psychiatric needs exceeded what a school could provide, she said.

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