the TRB has had the right to carry out police checks on all new and serving South
Australian teachers.Article from : ‘The Advertiser’, MILES KEMP, May 22, 2009 12:01am
NEW teachers are being allowed into the school system despite convictions for such offences as car theft, shoplifting, cannabis possession and lying to police.
Parents have called for more information on how new and returning teachers are allowed registration after information obtained by The Advertiser shows the Teachers Registration Board, which soon will be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, allowed nine new teachers, with 16 convictions, to register in the past year.
The new teacher with the longest list of convictions was an unregistered, uninsured driver who drove a defective car in a reckless manner in 1986, for which he lost his licence and was fined. He also was found guilty of petty larceny (1990), damaging property (1991) and possessing cannabis (1992).
SA Association of State School Organisations director David Knuckey called for more transparency in how the registrations were allowed to proceed and said parents did not know teachers were being allowed registration despite such offences.
The association last year successfully lobbied for a
Parliamentary inquiry into the TRB, to be conducted this year. Since 2005
the TRB has had the right to carry out police checks on all new and serving South
Australian teachers.
The figures were released for the first time because of an electronic database established in March last year and a Freedom of Information request from Family First MLC Robert Brokenshire. (pictured at right)
"The system is working because it seems to be finding those with criminal convictions but if a teacher has numerous convictions the department should have a monitoring process to help with their rehabilitation," he said.
Mr Knuckey said SAASO was concerned the TRB had never fined a teacher for misconduct. TRB registrar Wendy Hastings defended the system, arguing many factors were taken into account when applicants with criminal backgrounds were considered, including the relevance to teaching, child protection, if a weapon or violence was involved and age at the time of the offence.
Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said that since 2004, SA had the toughest criminal checks of teachers of any state.