Teacher suspended for alleged assault despite Police not prosecuting…

In an interim decision the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal had decided to suspend a teacher pending a hearing into an allegation of assault of a student.  The teacher was alleged to have grabbed a student and pushed him.  The teacher said that he was pulling the student away from another pupil to prevent harm to that other pupil.  The matter was referred to the Police and they declined to lay any charges against the teacher.  The Disciplinary Tribunal though considered that there was a good arguable case of serious misconduct and that the teacher should be suspended pending the full hearing by the Tribunal.  The teacher was suspended on 30 January 2019 until 30 April 2019.

The suspension was lifted on 16 April because the CAC decided not to lay any charges of serious misconduct against the teacher.

The teacher was therefore suspended for two and half months from teaching despite the Police deciding not to lay any assault charges and ultimately no charges being laid with the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal over the matter.




Alan Knowsley
Education Lawyer
Wellington