Wellington’s teacher told the student ‘I love you, I love everything about you’

A high school teacher accused of misconduct with a teenage student, even telling her he loved her and saying “you’re going to be all mine,” is in disciplinary court.

The Wellington teacher said that he would never do something “consciously” to distress a student and that his intention was always to help and support the girl.

The teacher, who has provisional name deletion, appeared before the New Zealand Teachers’ Disciplinary Tribunal this morning on the charge.

According to the factual summary, the man was teaching an art class last year when he met the student.

Throughout the year, he made a series of inappropriate comments to the girl, including saying “I love you, I love everything about you.”

On another occasion he said “after Tuesday you will be all mine”, referring to the end of the festival in which the student was involved.

In the middle of the year, the girl dropped out of her art class and moved to an art class in a lower year.

After this, the teacher saw the student one day with some friends and chased her, starting a conversation with her and asking her where she had been.

“He said words to the effect of ‘I miss you, I miss you, make sure you come back to class,'” said Complaint Evaluation Committee (CAC) attorney Rebecca Scott.

The girl then told the teacher that she had moved to a different class.

Scott also mentioned several occasions where the teacher touched the girl’s shoulder or hand, or sat next to her with his leg pressed against hers.

The 16-year-old student eventually denounced the teacher’s behavior by sending an anonymous letter to the school.

Today’s teacher said he was passionate about art and teaching, and that it hurt him deeply to be in court.

“I would never consciously act in a way that would distress a student,” he said.

“It was a horrible shock to find out that this is what had happened.”

He acknowledged “in isolation” that his behavior sounded “unbelievably creepy”, but that he was just trying to convey his support to a student who felt he was “reeling”.

“My only goal is to help my students … that’s all that interests me,” he said.

The girl “didn’t get involved” with the subject, she looked uncomfortable in class and seemed to be “really short.”

“I felt increasing pressure to try to help this student who seemed to be failing.”

Scott said it was now clear that his discomfort in class was related to the teacher’s behavior, but he disagreed and said he believed his discomfort was due to his struggles with school material.

“I was really worried about the student for all sorts of reasons. Her acting, her body language. She didn’t seem to speak to me, it was grunting, et cetera.”

Scott said the teacher’s response to that behavior was “to tell her I loved her.”

“I think if you see the words in absolute isolation, it sounds really creepy,” replied the teacher.

“It was not like that at all. I said something like ‘look, I love you, I love everything about you, I’m here for you … let me support you.’

“When I said that I love you, what I meant was ‘you’re welcome, this is your place as much as everyone else’s.’ I was trying to tell him ‘I’m there for you, I support you.’

He said that when he told the girl “you will be all mine”, he was implying that he wanted her to do some work, because she had completed very little.

“I was trying to show him a little bit more toughness about me to suggest that I needed to get the job done.”

When asked by panel member Nichola Coe if she would have used different language to encourage a student, she said she didn’t believe it, but acknowledged that she had never said to a student “I love you” or anything like that.

The man has now retired from teaching and said he has no plans to return to it.

“It’s a shame that after such a long career in which I have had so many successes, I have this at the end that has muddied the waters.”

The members of the panel will deliver their decision in writing.