“Ensuring children are safe is an absolute priority for school boards and all educators – there is no exception to this. Expectations on boards are clear," Stanford told the Herald in February.
She declined to comment this week on the man’s removal from the school’s staff list or on whether any investigations into his hiring process were underway.
Mitchell also declined to comment further.
In 2023, the man pleaded guilty to having a sexual connection with the teen, and indecent communication, which included sending photos of his genitals.
A judge at the time said a conviction would be a “crushing blow” to his future prospects, finding that “the gravity of the offending viewed as a whole is relatively low”.
The man was granted a discharge without conviction as well as permanent name suppression.
The court ordered an emotional harm payment to the victim of $2000.
Since the February story on his role at a primary school, the man has been removed as a staff member from the school’s website.
The Herald contacted the school about his apparent departure, but the principal did not respond to a request to confirm the man was no longer an employee.
A Ministry of Education spokesperson said the man’s employer would be best placed to comment.
The man’s lawyer was also approached for comment.
‘Parents would boycott’
The victim’s mother earlier told the Herald that parents should have the right to know that he was working there.
“Those girls and young women and their parents will not be aware of it, so they can’t take measures to protect them.”
She said if the school knew about the man’s history and still employed him it was “abhorrent”.
Her daughter, she said, had now given up on justice and felt that “sportsmen get away with things”.
In her opinion: “The sport and their success in sport comes ahead of the safety of young women and girls.”
The success of an individual’s career, she said, should never take precedence over the rights of victims.
“They should know, parents should be given the opportunity to make informed choices about their children’s safety.”
Earlier, the ministry‘s operations and integration acting leader Julia Hardacre said school boards had a legal and non-negotiable obligation to ensure every person they employed was safe to work with children.
“This includes completing full safety checks under the Children’s Act 2014 – such as identity verification, police vetting, reference checks and rigorous risk assessments.
“Any past behaviour involving a young person must be treated with the utmost seriousness.”
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers issues such as sexual assault, workplace misconduct, media, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
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