A married teacher who told a 15-year-old schoolboy she loved him in one of thousands of emails and text messages said she is “not a predator, she’s just pathetic.”
The woman had been teaching for just over three years when she was suspended for her alleged “inappropriate” and “manipulative” interactions with the teen.
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) heard he exchanged more than 1,200 emails with his student over a six-week period.
Among the messages were some in which he wrote ‘you don’t like that I’m married, do you?’ and “the professional teaching half of me is really relieved you’re leaving.” I’m sorry. You know how the other half feels.
After the teenager dropped out of school, the teacher sent him more than 3,600 text messages in less than a week, from September 21 to 27, 2018.
A married teacher who told a 15-year-old student she loved him in one of thousands of emails and text messages claimed she is ‘not a predator, she’s just pathetic’ (file image)
Those messages included her writing, “I think that would be amazing.” If we were closer in age’ and ‘You know I love you’.
Another said: “You’re beautiful and I’m so sorry I broke you.” I had no intention of that.’
In one of the emails QCAT deemed “inappropriate”, the teacher told the boy: “I know I have done wrong to you, but I have nothing to hide either.”
“I will deny nothing and I will stand by every word I have told you.”
In the same email, sent on September 27, 2018, he wrote “you have me forever.” Please, she comes back when you are 18 years old.
The regulator also found that she invited the former student to her home and encouraged him to lie to his parents about meeting her, asking: “Do you want to come to my house? I can look for you.”
The QCAT noted that his initial response to the allegations “was dismissive, lacked insight and attempted to place a degree of blame on the student in reference to his physical appearance and the alleged attention he provided to him.”
The woman initially rejected the claim that she caused the student any emotional or psychological distress, or that she was a danger to her students.
“My feelings for the student developed because he is a wonderful person who physically appears much older than he really is, and I was in a pathetic enough headspace not to turn off his attentions,” she said.
‘I made it clear to him that nothing would happen until he was an adult. He’s not a predator, just pathetic.
But the educator He later expressed “significant feelings of shame and regret” and voluntarily renounced his teaching registration.
“That was the biggest mistake of my life and I deeply regret my actions and the harm I caused my former student,” he said.
‘If I could go back in time and change everything, I would do it in the blink of an eye.
‘I am no longer that person and I shudder with shame and disgust when I think about my actions and how they affected my former student.
“I really hope this didn’t have any lasting impact and that he’s okay.”
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard the teacher exchanged more than 1,200 emails with her student over a six-week period (file image)
The QCAT found that emails and text messages from the teacher to the child were sent when there was an imbalance of power between them and were inappropriate and manipulative.
“The student was an impressionable 15-year-old, and (the teacher) was forcing him to make decisions about his future when he may not have been prepared to do so,” said the court’s decision, released Friday. saying.
The woman has been disqualified from teaching for three years since her suspension.
She has to be evaluated by a psychologist before she is allowed to teach again.