Teacher Put 8000 Explicit Images On School Computer
The Age
Tuesday September 16, 2008
AN ASSISTANT principal caught with more than 8000 pornographic images and movies on his school laptop has had his teaching registration cancelled, in one of three guilty findings handed down by the professional watchdog.
A disciplinary hearing before the Victorian Institute of Teaching heard Warwick John Nolan also used the school server and a desktop computer to store images of himself naked, naked or partially clothed women and transgender people and dolls in sexual poses. The panel heard the images on the school's server could potentially have been accessed by students and staff.A school investigation, sparked by a routine virus check of Nolan's laptop in 2004, saw Nolan sacked by the school in September 2005. The school then notified the institute. At the hearing in April, the school's then acting principal said an internal investigation also revealed inappropriate pornographic internet sites had been visited by Nolan and that he had used the school server to downloaded images of rape and sadomasochistic bondage. The acting principal said Nolan had refused to participate in the investigation but in a written statement in September 2004, confessed: "I have inappropriate material on my laptop."Nolan, a registered teacher since 2002, was found guilty of serious misconduct and unfit to teach. The other two disciplinary findings posted on the institute's website last Friday involved allegations of male teachers engaging in inappropriate communication and physical contact with female students.Teacher David Jonathan Kehagias will not be able to teach until September next year after the institute found he formed an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old female student via SMS and MSN messaging early last year. During two days of hearings in June, the panel heard that on August 31 Kehagias asked the student out for dinner and met her near the school before driving to a suburban lookout.In his car, Kehagias told her she was beautiful, kissed her on the neck and licked her ear. After dinner, in the car, he undid the student's jacket and began to kiss, lick and fondle her chest. When the student protested, he told her to "just enjoy it for now".Kehagias parked his car at the college and asked the student for one more kiss. When she refused, he said he would let her go if she kissed him. Later, via MSN, the teacher told the student that "we didn't fully cross any lines" and that "there needed to be a release".Kehagias admitted he was guilty of serious misconduct.In the third case, teacher Sean David Grady faced charges of serious misconduct.At hearings in March and June this year, the panel heard that Grady began inappropriate contact with a year 10 female student, sending SMS and MSN messages and making phone calls in late 2005 telling the girl he wanted to sleep with her.The panel also heard that in March that year Grady kissed another student in a hotel foyer after buying her a glass of wine for her 18th birthday. On another occasion, he invited her to his home.He also contacted a third student, a year 11 girl, asking her to his home via MSN and SMS, including "I'll come and pick you up and you can give me a massage", sent in November 2005. Inappropriate dealings with a fourth student were also outlined, involving Grady sending MSN messages to a year 11 student in December 2005 asking her to his home and if she wanted to swim naked with him in the school pool. It was also alleged that in February 2006, Grady sent sexually explicit material to another teacher by email.Grady, who conceded he had engaged in serious misconduct, had his registration suspended until December 2009.
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