A teacher has been struck off after having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student at a private Christchurch girls’ school.<\/p>\n
The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal found the behaviour of Taurapa, formerly known as Connor Taurapa Matthews, struck at the heart of the student-teacher relationship and was at the “most serious end” of misconduct cases.<\/p>\n
Taurapa was employed as a te reo M\u0101ori teacher at Rangi Ruru in 2018 and involved in performing arts groups when he started showering Helena Dray with attention and affection in a relationship that lasted almost a year.<\/p>\n
Dray asked the tribunal to waive her right to privacy through name suppression, while Taurapa lost a bid to keep his name secret.<\/p>\n
Taurapa gifted Dray a writing journal for her 16th birthday and two poems – one of which was titled ‘Words of Love’ – and pursued her through near-daily messaging, which graduated to the exchange of nude photographs and sexual activity.<\/p>\n
Dray told the tribunal Taurapa made space on a classroom floor with pillows and blankets for students to watch a musical on a projector one evening, when he kissed and “felt her up”, including touching her breasts.<\/p>\n
Taurapa was also a tutor living at a Christ’s College boarding house – a private boys’ school that often holds joint extra-curricular activities and events with Rangi Ruru.<\/p>\n
During rehearsals for a musical production with Christ’s College, Dray said Taurapa would kiss and grope her in the dressing rooms, telling her it did not have any security cameras.<\/p>\n
Dray said Taurapa would often tell her to make sure she deleted their messages from her phone and “not to leave a trace”.<\/p>\n
Taurapa made it clear their relationship was to be kept a secret, the tribunal said.<\/p>\n
“From initial grooming with attention and gifts, this quickly evolved into a highly inappropriate and sexualised relationship,” the decision said.<\/p>\n
“This type of conduct strikes at the heart of the teacher-student relationship. It is at the most serious end of serious misconduct cases that come before the tribunal.”<\/p>\n
The tribunal said Taurapa abused his position of trust and authority and left Dray “bouncing around a dangerous myriad of thoughts and feelings”.<\/p>\n
“Some days she thought they were ‘in love’. He rapidly moved her through a range of intimate chapters. Mental and emotional impact began to occur even during the relationship. Even if Ms Dray was predisposed to that … they were certainly exacerbated by Taurapa.<\/p>\n
“We accept that the effect on her has been significant.”<\/p>\n
Taurapa’s behaviour was exposed after photographs were taken of his car outside Dray’s house late at night in 2019.<\/p>\n
He also sent inappropriate messages to another 16-year-old girl, bought designer earrings for her 17th birthday, invited her punting on the Avon, and asked for pictures of her in a bikini.<\/p>\n
The disciplinary tribunal ordered the cancellation of Taurapa’s teacher’s registration for serious misconduct.<\/p>\n
He had sought name suppression, arguing because he was M\u0101ori he would suffer from “tabloid-style” publication, but the tribunal found this was not a real and appreciable risk.<\/p>\n
The tribunal noted both Rangi Ruru and Christ’s College acted responsibly when concerns were raised.<\/p>\n
Source RNZ<\/p>\n
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A teacher has been struck off after having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student at a private Christchurch girls’ school. The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal found the behaviour of Taurapa, formerly known as Connor Taurapa Matthews, struck at the heart of the student-teacher relationship and was at the “most serious end” of misconduct cases. Taurapa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6124,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123\/revisions\/6124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}