Teachers who groom: There is no specific rule against teachers using social media to contact students

In a recent case, Connor Taurapa Matthews, a teacher at Rangi Ruru Girls School in Christchurch, now known simply as Taurapa, used Snapchat to contact and systematically groom one of his 16-year-old students. The messages turned sexual, then into nude photos, then into a physical sexual relationship.

Taurapa then asked the student to delete her messages.

That student, Helena Dray, chose to opt out of name suppression when Taurapa was taken before the tribunal last year, where his registration was immediately withdrawn.

Last year, Dray called for a ban on social media contact between teachers and students.

“Nothing was done to prevent this, there were no conversations with students about these specific things, there was just no contact with teachers on social media. There were never any hard and fast rules about it and it was ultimately a matter of teacher discretion,” Dray said at the time.

Dray told the media that there was simply no need for teachers and students to be able to message each other privately.

“I think the problem is with these apps, where you can delete all previous messages, you can delete text messages, you can delete call history and Snapchats disappear. But having a platform where the IT department or the school department can access that data, I think that’s really important.”

It was the exchange of thousands of ‘increasingly intimate and intense’ text messages between a teacher and a student that became the focus of the inquest in 2016 after a Gisborne teenager committed suicide.

“I really want to climb through your window right now, just jump through and tell you how happy I am that you are here,” read a text message from teacher Sam Back to a 13-year-old Reiha McLelland.

Although no physical sexual relationship developed, Back was suspended by the tribunal before the inquest and his partner Angle Mepham, also a teacher, was warned after it emerged McLelland had spent the night at their home on several occasions.

A coroner later found that Reiha’s suicide risk would have been lower if she had not become entangled in a “secret friendship” with Back and Mepham.

However, instead of an outright ban on electronic communications between teachers and students, the Teachers’ Council has attempted to draw up a code of conduct around the types of behavior that precede grooming.

“Prescriptive ‘rules’ are generally not of much practical use, especially in areas such as technology and artificial intelligence, both of which are evolving rapidly,” a council spokesperson told NZME.

“Instead of rules, the teaching profession has developed a Code of Professional Responsibility and a set of standards for professional practice based on principles and shared values.”

That code notes that “promoting online connections with a student outside of the educational context” may be a violation, as can communicating with students about personal or sexual matters without a valid context.

Other aspects of the code outline how teachers must demonstrate a high standard of professional integrity, protect students from harm, and establish ethical relationships that respect professional boundaries.

The code itself will be reviewed in 2025 after consultation with teachers last year on how it could address teachers’ use of technology. The council told NZME it expected more specific guidance may be included in the code in the future.

Accountability mechanism

Professor Michael Macaulay, formerly a judge in the United Kingdom, lecturer at Victoria University’s School of Government and researcher with a focus on ethics and integrity, told NZME he had added a specific ban on teachers communicating with students in anything other than a school-approved system would be both easy and realistic.

‘I don’t understand what anyone would object to at all. If teachers want to contact students through some form of electronic communication, do so through an official channel.

“And if that’s not the case, then you just don’t do it.”

Macaulay said predators would always break the rules, but a specific ban on social media would be an additional “accountability mechanism”.

“If you cut off all avenues and opportunities, that’s a good thing. But it won’t stop the predatory behavior.

“However, that does not mean that you should not look at options to limit that type of behavior.

“I don’t think it would be difficult to implement, and I don’t even think it would be that controversial… It wouldn’t be a problem for the council to implement it.”

Macaulay said that if a teacher needs to reach a student outside of school, which he believes is necessary in the electronic age, they should do so through a school email that cannot be deleted or kept secret from parents or guardians. school. supervision.

Earlier this year, James Cook High School teacher Seelandran Ramiah asked three of his female students to download an encrypted app called Signal, which erases messages after a certain period of time.

Ramiah used this app to systematically groom one of those vulnerable students, sending her photos of his genitals and videos of himself masturbating.

The former deputy director had his teaching registration revoked and was subsequently separately sentenced by the court to five months in prison for his conduct.

Ramiah also represents one of the few cases in which a teacher faces criminal charges, in addition to professional consequences.

Professional boundaries

In 2011, the then director of the Education Council, Peter Lind, told the media that inappropriate relationships were inevitable and would be impossible to eradicate completely.

Since then, the board has changed its tune somewhat, with CEO Lesley Hoskin telling NZME: “One inappropriate relationship is one too many.”

“We believe the vast majority of teachers understand the expectations of using social media and technology in a safe and respectable manner. Therefore, there is currently no prohibition in the Code and Standards on the use of digital platforms to communicate with students.

“Just as students must learn and grow to navigate the world safely and respectfully, we expect teachers to do the same, including adapting to the rapidly evolving world of technology.”

Hoskin said that when teachers crossed those professional boundaries, context was crucial and teachers’ use of social media to support student learning had shifted.

“The context of teachers’ early adoption of social media to support student learning has changed significantly as schools have moved to formally implement approved learning technologies for student use, which have built-in safeguards and are governed by clear policies for both teachers as students. ”

Hosking highlighted that there are 110,000 registered teachers in New Zealand and a total of 462 mandatory reports have been submitted to the council by June 2023, representing just 0.4% of all teachers. Of these, the number of cancellations of registrations was only 0.02%.

In the last ten years, 81 cases of inappropriate relationships have been heard at the tribunal, resulting in the cancellation of 53 teachers’ registrations.

John Fenuaghty, a lecturer at the University of Auckland and a specialist in child welfare and psychology, agreed with the Teaching Council’s approach to social media in its current code of conduct.

“A caveat to a ban means recognizing that social media is a slippery concept and it’s not entirely clear what we mean when we talk about it, as new forms emerge and disappear all the time,” he said.

“Issuing a ban requires a very clear understanding of the terms and what we mean.”

Fenaughty said the Board of Education was currently focused on the ethical obligations of its members and focused on the substance of the relationships teachers had with their students, rather than the involvement of technology.

He said that regardless of any bans or ethical and professional obligations teachers had, it was crucial to ensure students knew how to spot inappropriate contact and how to report it through the appropriate channels.

“It really comes down to students being able to recognize abusive grooming behaviors and what the warning signs are in that communication.

“In saying that, I would like to note that 99% of teacher communications are appropriate and we must be careful about implementing a ban that could potentially harm the student-teacher relationship, which in turn will impact academic student participation.

“I think the question is whether the use of social media actually improves or enables a care situation?”

The tribunal noted in a 2017 case where a teacher added a young girl to Instagram that while social media was a useful tool, it expected a school to have clear guidelines on its use.

The tribunal highlighted the damaging effect that a teacher’s treatment of a student as a friend can have on a student, noting that the resulting harm is “sometimes more (in an inappropriate relationship) than a sexual relationship.”

A spokesperson for the Education Review Office said it requires schools to have a child protection policy that sets out the standards and principles that all staff must adhere to.

“It should be a comprehensive and effective policy with robust practices and guidelines and outline the standards and principles to which all staff will adhere, including the action to be taken by staff where any form of abuse or mistreatment is known or suspected.

“The policy should determine what action is needed if allegations are made against staff and explore the implications for staff training.”

The Emergency Response Team then checks whether schools meet these obligations.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for almost ten years and has worked for NZME since 2022.