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Andrew Hasson / Getty
Motueka High School teacher aide Warwick Stubbs lost his teacher’s record after bringing a jar of magic mushrooms to school in 2018 (file photo).
A Nelson teacher who brought magic mushrooms onto the school grounds showed a “lack of understanding” of the potential effects of his behavior, a court found.
Warwick Frank Stubbs was stripped of his teacher record following a New Zealand Teacher Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in March. His decision was published this week.
The incident occurred on June 15, 2018, when Stubbs was working as a teacher aide at Motueka High School.
Previously employed in the music departments of Darfield High School, Otaki College, Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate, and Gisborne Girls’ High School, Stubbs had initially worked at Motueka High School as a roving guitar teacher for 2.5 hours per week.
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According to the agreed factual summary, on June 15 a student at the school had found an expensive guitar and an amplifier hidden in a closet in the school’s music warehouse.
The student then told one of the other music teachers, who after investigating the guitar case found a glass container that contained magic mushrooms, a class A controlled drug.
CCTV footage from the school showed that Stubbs had previously placed the guitar in the closet.
In subsequent conversations with the school administration, Stubbs said that he had owned the magic mushrooms since 2013.
Braden Fastier / Stuff
Stubbs had initially been hired at Motueka High School as a traveling guitar teacher.
Stubbs said that while he had no interest in using the mushrooms, he had never gotten to throw them away and forgot where they were.
The reason she had been storing her valuables at school was because she was living in her car after a fight with her roommate, she said.
While he acknowledged that bringing the drugs to school was a “massive mistake,” he did not consider that he had done anything morally wrong and that it was not necessary for him to lose his job.
After an employment investigation, Stubbs was fired by Motueka High School, and the Complaint Assessment Committee (CAC) took the matter to the Teacher Disciplinary Tribunal in 2019.
Stubbs did not appear for either the hearing or the pre-hearing conferences, living in a van with no address or phone number “and will be continually on the road for the foreseeable future.”
In their court filings, the CAC requested the cancellation of Stubb’s enrollment as his conduct negatively reflected his aptitude to be a teacher and could discredit the teaching profession.
The court agreed with the CAC, in its ruling, saying its biggest problem was Stubbs’ “lack of knowledge of his behavior,” who had also lacked any real thought or remorse.
“The minimal participation of the defendant in the court process is not helpful.
“While the respondent acknowledges the potential harm to students if they had tried magic mushrooms, the fact that he was in possession of an illegal drug in the first place seems to be of less concern to him.
“He told the principal when the matter was being investigated that he had not done anything morally wrong, and as an adult, if he decided to try drugs, then that was his choice.”
Stubbs was also ordered to pay 40 percent of the court’s costs, which amounted to $ 1,145.
In an email sent to the court, Stubbs said that it was Motueka High School principal John Prestidge, not himself, who was responsible for the CAC taking action, and that he was “never going to pay [the tribunal] a single penny ”.
After this exchange, the court ordered Stubbs to pay 50 percent of the costs “given the defendant’s lack of commitment to the process and his total lack of acceptance, it was his own behavior that initiated [the proceedings]”.
