Teacher stood down in new scandal
A teacher has been stood down while Education officials re-examine an internet porn case from nine years ago as the Weatherill Government finds itself engulfed in another schools scandal.
Newly installed department boss Tony Harrison ordered an urgent review into the case of a former student wrongly blamed for viewing hundreds of pornographic websites.
The Australian newspaper revealed today the student, now 23 years old, received $30,000 in “hush money” from the department in a deal settled in February last year .
While the settlement required the former student to keep details of the case secret, the confidentiality clause appeared to be lifted this morning by the Premier, Jay Weatherill.
“If they want that confidentiality waived, we should consider it,” Weatherill told ABC Radio.
InDaily understands he later spoke with the former student and cleared the confidentiality waiver.
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Shortly after, television news crews flew to Mount Gambier to interview the man who now runs a successful business in the south east.
The incident happened in 2004 and when the school principal discovered in November of that year the student had been wrongly accused, he wrote him an apology.
There was also an investigation into whether the student’s computer access had been used by a teacher at the school to access porn sites.
“As a result of the investigation, the teacher received a direction in relation to safeguarding (department) computers,” the department said in a statement yesterday.
Until he was stood down today, the teacher was still working for the Education Department in a southern suburbs school.
InDaily understands the matter remained as it was in late 2004 until the former student started making Freedom of Information applications in 2011 when Jay Weatherill was Education Minister.
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The settlement was reached in early 2012 when Grace Portolesi was Education Minister. It included a formal apology from then-department chief executive Keith Bartley.
It’s not known whether either minister was advised of the negotiations, settlement or second apology.
The student is understood to have most recently approached the department when he met with new chief executive Tony Harrison late last week.
Harrison said today he was prepared to reverse any decisions that he considered inappropriate.
“I’ll take swift action and different action if it is required,” he told FIVEaa’s Leon Byner this morning.
“I’m a different CEO and I think I’ve shown in the last few months that I’m prepared to make changes to decisions,” he said.
“These issues are very serious; one issue is the suitability of the teacher remaining as an employee of the department.”
In August this year InDaily revealed that Families SA, part of the Education Department, had employed a convicted embezzler as a financial counsellor while she awaited sentencing on charges relating to the misappropriation of $118,000.
Harrison commissioned a review of that case and the employee’s employment was recently terminated.
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