Qld teacher barred over sexual comments, race-based reprimand

A Queensland teacher who talked to students about sexual fantasies and told First Nations children they were “taking the rights away” from other students has been banned from teaching for five years.

The teacher, who worked at a secondary state school and had almost two decades of experience, was accused by several students of making sexual comments, with his behaviour spanning about four years.

A decision handed down by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal said there was evidence the teacher discussed sex acts with one student, as well as her sex life, and told her he was going to help another teacher change out of her wet clothes. The school was alerted to the concerns after an email from the student’s mother.

The student described how the teacher allegedly discussed sexual fantasies, how “women like multiple guys”, and said that “women’s sexual fantasy is gang bangs, and went on to talk about men’s fantasies as threesomes”.

The student said the teacher then spoke about her and her boyfriend, saying words to the effect of: “I know you and [the boyfriend] would get it on.”

This evidence was corroborated by another student, the tribunal heard. The teacher denied making any inappropriate comments to the students during class.

He was also accused of discussing the shape of a penis, pornography, and sexual positions.

In another allegation, the teacher was accused of making threatening comments to a student, implying that the student should masturbate. He also referenced his personal masturbation frequency with students, and the sex lives of paralysed people.

In one incident in 2020, a student said the man took a Rubik’s cube from him that he was playing with in class, and said, “there are things to play with on your body”.

Multiple students corroborated this evidence, the tribunal heard.

In another incident, the teacher said during a lesson: “If you keep swinging on your chair, you will become a paraplegic and you will not be able to get an erection. Nobody will want to have sex with you or want to date you.”

According to the judgment, the teacher reprimanded a First Nations student in 2020, moving her to the front of the class for misbehaving, and “told the students who were not of European descent to stand up, and said the students who were standing were taking away the rights of the other [white] students”.

A video filmed by one student showed several others standing and the teacher talking to them in an aggressive and intimidating manner.

“The video records [the teacher] calling Student T, an Aboriginal student who was required to stand, a hypocrite, referring to the Black Lives Matter movement, and suggested that the standing students were denying other students their ‘rights’,” the decision read.

The teacher later denied the allegations, but when showed the video, accepted the behaviour, although he denied that it was racially motivated, and said it was not intentional and that he was “emotionally triggered”.

In another incident, one student asked the teacher how much tattoos hurt. The teacher grabbed a bandage clip and used the sharp part to jab the student’s arm until it bled. The student’s arm was scarred and photos were taken of that scar, the judgment said.

The teacher was also accused of aggressively confronting another teacher, who was pregnant, swearing and slamming a door in her face.

He was accused of failing to appropriately fulfil his teaching duties, with particular mention of year 8 students, class attendance, and playground duties.

The teacher resigned following the Education Department allegations.

He became a teacher in 2003 and was registered until April last year, when his registration was cancelled due to nonpayment of fees.

The tribunal said the man had not responded to the allegations against him and had not filed any material in the proceedings, apart from submissions.

It said over a lengthy period, the teacher had engaged in various behaviours that included sexualised, racially prejudiced, aggressive, physically inappropriate and unprofessional conduct towards students and staff at the secondary school.

“We formed the opinion that it demonstrated a degree of arrogance, insensitivity, absence of insight and lack of caring by [the teacher] that the community at large would not reasonably expect, nor would it in any way accept as being proper, or even permissible, for any teacher to engage in when in a position to care for and guide the community’s children in a learning environment,” the tribunal said.

It was ordered that the man be denied permission to teach for five years.

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