A married teacher who told a 15-year-old schoolboy she loved him in one of thousands of emails and text messages has claimed she is ‘not a predator, just pathetic’.
The woman had been teaching for just over three years when she was suspended over her alleged ‘inappropriate’ and ‘manipulative’ interactions with the teen.
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) heard she exchanged more than 1,200 emails with her pupil over a six-week period.
Among the messages were ones where she wrote ‘you don’t like that I’m married do you?’ and ‘the professional teacher half of me is actually really relieved that you’re leaving. Sorry. You know how the other half feels.’
After the teenager left the school, the teacher sent more than 3,600 text messages to him in less than a week, from 21 to 27 September 2018.
A married teacher who told a 15-year-old schoolboy she loved him in one of thousands of emails and text messages claimed she is ‘not a predator, just pathetic’ (stock image)
Those messages included her writing that ‘I think it would be amazing. If we were closer in age’ and ‘You know I want you.’
Another said ‘You’re gorgeous and I’m so sorry I broke you. I had no intention of that’.
In one of the emails the QCAT found to be ‘inappropriate’, the teacher told the boy ‘I know I have done wrong by you but I also have nothing to hide.
‘I will deny nothing and stand by every single word I’ve ever said to you.’
In the same email, sent on September 27, 2018, she wrote ‘you’ve got me forever. Please come back when you’re 18’.
The regulator also found 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 place I can get you.’
The QCAT noted her initial response to the allegations ‘was dismissive, lacked insight and attempted to shift some degree of blame onto the student by reference to his physical appearance and alleged attention that he gave her’.
The woman initially rejected the assertion that se caused the student any emotional or pyschological distress, or that she was a danger to her students.
‘My feelings for the student developed because he is a wonderful person who physically looks much older than he actually is, and I was in a pathetic enough headspace to not shut down his attentions,’ she said.
‘I made it clear that nothing would happen until he was an adult. Not a predator, just pathetic.’
But the educator later expressed ‘significant feelings of shame and regret’ and voluntarily surrendered her teaching registration.
‘That was the biggest mistake of my life and I deeply regret my actions and the harm I caused my former student,’ she said.
‘If I could go back in time and change everything I would in a heartbeat.
‘I am no longer that person and I cringe with shame and disgust when I think of my actions and how they affected my former student.
‘I truly hope that he has not had any lasting impacts from this and that he is doing OK.’
![The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard that the teacher exchanged more than 1,200 emails with her pupil over a six week period (stock image)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/18/09/85035117-13432703-image-a-33_1716022234988.jpg)
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard that the teacher exchanged more than 1,200 emails with her pupil over a six week period (stock image)
The QCAT found the teacher’s emails and text to the boy were sent when there was a power imbalance between them and were inappropriate and manipulative.
‘The student was a young impressionable 15-year-old boy, and (the teacher) was coercing him to make decisions about his future when he may not have been ready to do so,’ the tribunal decision, which was published on Friday, said.
The woman has been barred from teaching for three years backdated to her suspension.
She has to be assessed by a psychologist before she is allowed to teach again.
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