Teacher charged on supplying drugs

[Abrad]

dailytelegraph.news.com.au
A CASUAL teacher at a Sydney high school has been charged with supplying drugs.
NSW Education Department Director-General Andrew Cappie-Wood said the male teacher was charged by police about four weeks ago.

The teacher was immediately dismissed from the school, the name of which has yet to be confirmed.

Mr Cappie-Wood said it was unclear whether the teacher was accused of selling drugs at the school.

"This one casual teacher in the school has been charged by the police with a variety of offences we believe," Mr Cappie-Wood told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"Clearly we're obviously concerned about this, we send a very strong anti-drugs message through the department and the schools.

"It's distressing for us to have this position such as it is, and it's one that that we moved (to rectify) as soon as we knew about it, to make sure that teacher was no longer employed by the department.

"If he is proved guilty through the process of the courts, well then his file will be stamped never to be employed in any capacity in the education system."

Mr Cappie-Wood said some parents at the school had been informed of the police investigation, but Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt had not yet been told.

"Clearly we update the minister regularly about matters that are under investigation inside the department and that would be part of the next regular briefing to her on those matters," he said.

Mr Cappie-Wood said the police investigation was continuing.

A NSW Police spokeswoman said a media statement would be released shortly.

The teacher will face Ryde Local Court on July 19.

Meanwhile, NSW Education Department figures have revealed that nearly 50 teachers have been pulled out of the state's public schools over the past two years following allegations of child abuse.

Forty-nine teachers were banned from having contact with students in the two years to April and placed on "alternative duties" after child protection allegations were made against them, a Sydney newspaper reports today.

According to figures the newspaper obtained under freedom of information laws, only two of the 49 teachers were dismissed from the service and an unknown number were allowed to return to the classroom following investigations by the Education Department.

In the same period 59 other teachers were placed on alternative duties after the department found them to be inefficient, and only two of them were sacked.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good article

[tre2005be]

ya see i never had teachers like that my school weren't anywhere near that good! damn crappy school

[Creeping Death]

It's probably nothing more than a teacher smoking with students now and then.

One of the students tells a friend about it, word gets around, and the teacher has a big problem. A friend of mine used to smoke with his teacher. Thankfully around here we protect eachother from the police rather than rat eachother out.