A married high school teacher who had a sexual relationship with his former student has been banned from teaching for seven years.
The man taught the teenage girl for two and a half years between 2017 and 2019, before they allegedly began exchanging texts, and messages on the encrypted app Telegram.
It's alleged their relationship escalated, becoming physical and sexual in nature, after the student graduated.
He was 26-years-old when the misconduct started.
According to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal judgement, the female student was in year 12, and 18-years-old, when she confided in her teacher about some mental health struggles one day after school.
It's alleged the pair then began communicating and meeting up, including outside the school library and on one occasion at a hotel while the teen was still enrolled at school.
On another date the teacher was allegedly witnessed by at least two people touching the students' legs under a table while the pair were playing board games at a camp.
In late 2019, the teen also allegedly gave her teacher a jar of lollies as a birthday gift, and on another occasion, handed him love letters which were later found by the man's wife.
"She found the handwritten letters in the glove box of the respondent's car," the judgement stated.
"The respondent took the letters from her, tore them up and put them in the recycling bin", then deleted photos of the letters from her phone without her knowledge or permission.
Some messages obtained by an investigator detailed a conversation about the teacher's former wife removing her wedding rings.
"Do you feel a little hurt? Like does it feel it feel more real. That yeah what's happening between you two is real?," the student asked her former teacher.
"No, I don't feel hurt actually. Yeah it does make it feel more real, though, but I guess that was to be expected," he replied.
"That's okay ๐ just wish I could spend more time with you," he added.
Sexual relationship after graduation
According to the judgement, the misconduct escalated in 2020 after the student graduated high school, becoming an ongoing sexual relationship.
It included at least nine overnight stays, visits together to Springbrook National Park, a cinema, and a several week period where they sent over 1,400 texts.
The teacher was first suspended in April 2020, with the Queensland College of Teachers applying in 2024 to have him banned from teaching indefinitely, alleging misconduct on at least 15 occasions.
Among them were allegations the pair had kissed and engaged in other sexual acts while the student was still in school.
When questioned, the teacher and student both denied the allegations, with some unable to be proven as "the only evidence was second hand hearsay from a friend of the student".
Today the tribunal said an indefinite ban wouldn't be appropriate, instead prohibiting the teacher from reapplying for his registration and from teaching for seven years from when he was first suspended.
He will be eligible to teach again on November 30 this year.
In today's judgement the Queensland College of Teachers said it agreed with the Tribunal that "teachers are bestowed with a special trust by parents and the community to act in the best interest of students and to protect them from harm".
"And, with that trust, an expectation that it will not be breached," it said.
"Teachers exercise powers that have a significant impact on the lives of students.
"The standard applied to behaviour of a teacher both in their capacity as a teacher and behaviour which occurs outside of a school setting or with recent former students."
