A Porirua high school teacher has been censured after admitting he exposed his class to sexually explicit material and porn was found on his school computer.
Carey Straayer, who has taught in Aotea College's English and social sciences faculty since 2003, was this week found guilty of serious misconduct by the Teaching Council's Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC).
The CAC found that Straayer had used a school-issued laptop to view 17 "inappropriate websites", some of which contained porn. A technical investigation of the laptop established adult comic book, online gaming and fan-created artwork sites were among those accessed.
The cached data from these sites resulted in 2214 attempts from the laptop to access adult content, the CAC found, because the sites had compromised its security.
Personal images "of a risqué nature" were also stored on the laptop, the CAC's findings explained, one of which - a photo of his girlfriend with her cleavage showing - was seen by his class during an online exercise.
They also saw an explicit message from a person over Facebook, which read: "I have an open relationship with my husband - do you want to f**k?"
It was this explicit content that drew an anonymous complaint from a parent in March 2018, resulting in the investigation into Straayer's conduct.
After the investigation wrapped up, Aotea College gave Straayer a final written warning over his actions, which he accepted. He has also agreed to future monitoring of his electronic devices, the CAC says, and has purchased his school laptop for personal use.
The Teaching Council has imposed a censure on Straayer, and he's been ordered to pay 40 percent of the CAC's costs and inform any prospective employer of the decision for the next two years.
Straayer has participated in a restorative meeting with students exposed to the explicit content, and apologised to the school for the misconduct.
He admits his accessing of inappropriate website exposed the school to increased risk of pornographic viruses, and has "fully accepted responsibility for his actions".
"This has been a significant lesson for him," the CAC said.
