Early childhood teacher censured after being convicted of using methamphetamine

A methamphetamine pipe in use. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

A provisionally registered early childhood teacher was caught using methamphetamine when police were notified of a "strong smell" emanating from her garage.

Rawinia Veronica Andrews was convicted and fined $400 in September last year, and censured by the Education Council in October.

The Council ordered Andrews to be randomly drug tested for 18 months from October, and inform any prospective employer of her conviction, as well as providing them a copy of the Council's decision.

Police caught Andrews consuming the Class A controlled drug in her garage with two others on February 6 last year.

They also found chemical compounds and other chemicals in a stolen vehicle parked in the garage.

Andrews admitted her drug use but said she was unaware the vehicle was stolen or what it contained. She told police the people consuming the drug with her were boarders who had been living there for about a week.

Her defence counsel applied for discharge without conviction, saying a conviction would adversely affect her ability to teach.

Judge Couch accepted her offending was "towards the lower end of the scale" but considered a conviction appropriate for the gravity of the offence.

Andrews, who trained as an early childhood educator as a mature student, reported her conviction to the Council and an investigation was launched.

The Council found her drug use "adversely reflected her fitness to teach".

"The use of methamphetamine is the antithesis of the standard expected from teachers, irrespective of the setting, personal or professional, in which it occurs," the decision said.

But Andrews' registration wasn't cancelled due to several factors, including her guilty plea in court, the fact she reported the conviction to the council and that she had cut ties with associates who influenced her to use the drug.

The Council also took into account a new support network Andrews had gained since her conviction, including an employer she worked for briefly who gave her a positive reference, and her financial hardship and personal difficulties at the time of the drug use.

The same personal difficulties considered "significant extenuating circumstances" persuaded the Council to provisionally register Andrews in 2014 after it learned she had been granted a diversion by police two years earlier for assaulting her then 18-year-old son.

In court last September, it was also revealed she was convicted for drink driving in 2005.

The Council decided to "focus on the positive", however. Andrews had attended drug and alcohol counselling sessions since her conviction last year and had agreed to more if ordered to.

"Further, she assures us she remains drug free and provided a result of a screening test she underwent in February 2016, which confirms she had no drugs in her system at the time."