Southland teacher struck off for showing 'inappropriate video' to students among other incidents

November 23, 2017
Students sitting an exam.

A Southland teacher has been struck off the register for a number of infringements, including showing a video of a female orgasm to her year nine advanced science class.

Dawn Patricia Ganaha, who was a teacher at Southland Boys' High School from 2012 to 2016, played a TED talk called 10 things you didn't know about orgasms to students, one of five incidents that saw her referred to the New Zealand Teacher Disciplinary Tribunal.

The other four incidents were photographing students and exchanging texts at a cultural assembly, swearing at a student and hitting another, taking a student home without notifying a parent and lying about the ownership of a visiting student's scooter.

The Tribunal found Ms Ganaha had "repeatedly blurred the professional boundary between herself and students", meaning her collective actions amounted to serious misconduct.

The Tribunal summed up the case by saying: "It's crucial that teachers maintain the professional boundaries between themselves and their charges."

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