A teacher who was acting erratically and appeared to other teachers to be “on something” was later found to have brought methamphetamine to school in a sunglasses case and to have smoked the drug on the school grounds.<\/p>\n
The North Island educator was only sprung after she left her glasses case in the bathroom used by staff and special needs students.<\/p>\n
Now Katherine Kirk, who has taught for 15 years, has been struck off by the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal following a process with which she failed to properly engage.<\/p>\n
The tribunal’s decision, released today, stated a charge against the woman of serious misconduct was heard in March this year.<\/p>\n
While Kirk does not have name suppression, the school at which she was employed does.<\/p>\n
The woman’s professional undoing began when various colleagues noted she was acting “erratically”.<\/p>\n
One commented she appeared to be “on something”, while another observed her often complaining of an upset stomach and taking herself away to the bathroom.<\/p>\n
After the first Covid-19 lockdown, the teacher returned to work and was “disorganised and forgetful”, according to the decision.<\/p>\n
Later that year, a teacher aide claimed that she came across a glasses case in Kirk’s classroom which a student said belonged to the teacher.<\/p>\n
When the aide opened it, zip-lock bags containing white powder and a glass pipe were discovered.<\/p>\n
But the teacher aide never reported the finding and later told the tribunal that was due to her fear of potential repercussions.<\/p>\n
It was not the only time Kirk left her stash unattended.<\/p>\n
Some weeks later Kirk was seen heading towards the bathroom used by staff and special needs students.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, another staff member used the bathroom and discovered a glasses case inside.<\/p>\n
They opened the case and discovered a “glass item” which wasn’t a pair of glasses. The acting principal took possession of the case and contacted a police officer, who confirmed the items were a glass pipe used to smoke the drug and three “straws” used to scoop it.<\/p>\n
While the principal was looking at the sunglasses case away from other staff, Kirk was seen entering the staff room three times, appearing stressed and as if she was looking for something.<\/p>\n
The school’s principal then met with each staff member to ask about the case and its contents. Kirk told her boss it was not hers.<\/p>\n
Police later seized the case and its contents. A lighter was found in Kirk’s jacket, but staff noted she was not a cigarette smoker. The principal announced to staff an investigation had been launched.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A teacher who was acting erratically and appeared to other teachers to be “on something” was later found to have brought methamphetamine to school in a sunglasses case and to have smoked the drug on the school grounds. The North Island educator was only sprung after she left her glasses case in the bathroom used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317","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=7317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7319,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317\/revisions\/7319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}