Ex-teacher censured after wrestling match with student

A teacher who challenged a male student to a wrestling match has been censured. Stock / 123rf

A former teacher who challenged a student to a wrestling match for “disrespecting him” was censured despite the student at the centre of the incident saying he was unharmed and it was “all in fun”.

In February 2020, teacher Jonathon Tate-Rushworth reacted to a Year 13 student he felt was “disrespecting him” in a business studies class. The name of the school and student is suppressed.

“Who wants to see me wrestle [the student]?” he asked the class. The teenage boy agreed to the challenge, after discussing the “rules” of the wrestle with the teacher.

The pair then wrestled on the floor of the classroom. At one point, the student had his arm around Tate-Rushworth’s neck, and the teacher later put him in a chokehold.

Other students in the class filmed the incident, which they later shared online. One video was provided as part of the investigation and is now subject to a non-publication order.

The day after the incident, Tate-Rushworth apologised to the class and said he had crossed professional boundaries.

“I was worried sick last night over this foolish thing that I’ve done. I don’t mind whatever consequences come my way - but I’m sorry to you guys that you’ll have to deal with this.”

He reported the incident to the principal, which included sending footage of the wrestling and admitting to putting the student in a chokehold, which was not caught on camera.

The teacher was placed on leave with pay while the school investigated.

In a statement to the school, the student said the pair had wrestled for a few minutes and that it was all in fun and he had not been in pain.

Other students described the incident as “a bit of fun wrestling”, “light-hearted”, and “really quick”.

Later that month, the principal wrote to Tate-Rushworth saying that, by agreement, the school would establish a monitoring relationship with the deputy principal, and that he would be censured.

The Teaching Council was notified, as is mandatory.

The council’s Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC) investigated, and proceedings were launched before the Teacher’s Disciplinary Tribunal.

Tate-Rushworth told the tribunal his intentions were good, but he acknowledged his mistake.

He clarified the chokehold did not constrict the student’s windpipe: “There was negligible risk of harm,” he said.

Both the CAC and Tate-Rushworth agreed the actions amounted to serious misconduct.

“It was conduct that reflected adversely on the respondent’s fitness to be a teacher. It was also conduct that may bring the teaching profession into disrepute,” deputy chair Tim Mackenzie wrote.

The recently released decision the tribunal censured the teacher, added an annotation to his registration, and installed a requirement to provide the decision to any future educational employer over the following 12 months.

He was also ordered to pay $2230.40 in costs.

However, the decision states that in early 2021, before the tribunal’s hearing and determination, Tate-Rushworth was convicted of an unrelated offence in the courts and had his teaching registration cancelled.

He was then fired from the school.