Teacher suspended after Saturday night acid trip…

A teacher purchased 8 LSD acid trips and supplied them to his friends one weekend while staying at a bach in the Hawkes Bay. The group of friends had gone away for the weekend to celebrate a birthday and had prearranged to consume the Class A drugs. The event went drastically wrong when one of the party went missing, requiring the teacher to give a full account of the nights events to the police. The teacher accepted full responsibility for the drugs, and was subsequently charged with the supply of class A drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal noted that it will almost certainly constitute serious misconduct for any teacher to deal in class A drugs. However, the Tribunal took into account that the dealing occurred in the teacher’s private life and outside of school hours.

The Tribunal also noted that the District Court had discharged the teacher without conviction, and was satisfied that the teacher would not repeat his error of judgment.

The Tribunal censured the teacher for serious misconduct and suspended the teacher’s registration for one year.