Grant Spicer has been censured for misconduct after he messaged two students on TikTok. Photo / Facebook
Teacher Grant Spicer knew he shouldn’t be messaging preteen students on TikTok. But he did it anyway.
It was through the social media platform that he reached out to the two girls and sent them compliments such as “your outfit was really pretty today” and “I liked your hair”.
While Spicer later told the Teacher’s Disciplinary Tribunal he was trying to be “relatable” to his students, the tribunal also heard his actions made one of the Rototuna Primary School students “sick to her stomach”.
In a recently released decision, the tribunal censured Spicer for the misconduct and ordered the censure be noted on the teaching register for two years.
The decision said Spicer had worked as a teacher at the school since 2016 but took time off in 2022 before returning in 2023.
That year, a student and her friends talked to Spicer at school and told him they’d found his TikTok account.
Spicer then showed the students his TikTok account on his phone.
On TikTok, accounts can message other accounts if they follow one another.
Later in the year, while scrolling TikTok, the student came across Spicer’s account again and she followed him.
Spicer followed the student back and they exchanged several messages.
Spicer messaged “Hi”, with several “eye” emojis. The student replied, “Hi? Who is this?” as she was unsure who was messaging her. Spicer clarified it was him and asked, “what time are you going to sleep?” before saying, “Oh, your outfit was really pretty today”.
The student said she found this comment weird, the decision said.
Spicer then said, “Oh, you should come, like, see me”, to which she replied, “um, okay”.
At some point during this conversation, the student asked Spicer if he would like to know another students’ TikTok account details. He said he would.
Spicer went on to tell the student they would have to unfollow and block each other on TikTok because “teachers can’t text kids”.
The student tried to block Spicer but he then messaged her saying, “Hi, it’s funny how we can like, still text”.
Spicer sent further messages to the student. She decided to delete her TikTok account and create a new one so Spicer could not message her.
Also in 2023, Spicer interacted inappropriately with another student at the school.
At that time, she had done something different with her hair and he told her, “Oh, your hair looks nice”.
The comment made the student feel “a bit off” and “a bit sick”, the decision said.
Spicer went on to follow the student’s TikTok account and began messaging her.
The conversation included him saying, “Just want you to know that I liked your hair Oi! Dunno if I said!”
“You did but thanks again,” the student responded.
He later messaged: “Oi soooooooo teachers aren’t really meant to follow kids. So I’m gonna have to remove you sorry. But add me back anytime you wanna chat.”
The pair unfollowed each other but Spicer sent a further message late at night asking: “You still get this?”, which she did.
Spicer continued to send occasional messages to the girl. They included him telling her what he was doing with his family and other various topics. The student did not respond.
The decision said that while Spicer messaged both students on TikTok, the girls talked to each other on separate social media platforms, updating each other on what he was saying to each of them.
An investigation began when the second student’s father found the messages on her phone.
The father went to the school and raised the messages with a support teacher, who then went to principal Kylie Morris.
The principal submitted a mandatory report to the Teaching Council and spoke about the complaint with Spicer, who deleted his TikTok account.
She also sent Spicer a formal email explaining the school would be notifying Oranga Tamariki and the police. No action was taken by either agency.
Spicer was suspended from his teaching position on July 25, 2023, while the matter was investigated.
On September 1, the principal advised the Teaching Council the school had not completed its investigation into Spicer’s conduct because he had resigned.
When the matter was later heard by the tribunal, the first student said she felt the way Spicer behaved on TikTok was different from how he was at school and it made her feel “really uncomfortable”.
The second student said Spicer’s messages made her feel “sick to her stomach”, “uneasy”, and “uncomfortable”. She avoided Spicer at school after he had messaged her.
She had attended counselling because of what had taken place.
Spicer told the tribunal he took a break from teaching in 2022 so he and his wife could renovate a home and their first child arrived soon after.
When he returned to teaching in 2023, he struggled with the new work-life balance.
“He stated that to try to make life easier in the classroom and be more relatable to students, he kept his TikTok account open,” the decision said.
He said he “mistakenly thought that this might help students better respond to my instructions within the classroom, but instead I ended up responding to a student’s message”.
“Looking back, I know it wouldn’t have made an ounce of difference to how students behaved in the classroom. It went against not only my own training as a teacher, but also the curriculum I taught students about how to be safe online,” he told the tribunal.
He said he was “truly disappointed in himself”, the decision said.
Spicer declined to comment when approached by NZME.
Tribunal chairperson Jo Hughson said in the decision that Spicer’s conduct was “relatively limited in scope and there were relatively few messages”.
“There were also no distinct sexual or romantic themes in Mr Spicer’s messaging and his conduct never translated into inappropriate in-person interactions or other types of boundary breaches.
“In saying that, some of Mr Spicer’s comments in his messages were personal and unusual.”
Morris acknowledged the decision.
“The staff member’s employment ended at that time and they have not returned to the school,” she told NZME.
“The Teaching Council’s Disciplinary Tribunal has confirmed that the school acted appropriately and professionally in its handling of the matter.
“The safety and wellbeing of our students is our highest priority.
“All staff are trained in child protection practices, including appropriate professional boundaries and online communication.”
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.