Teacher Kuraroa Fay-Dorn Mitchell helped students cheat on tests and provided tobacco

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A teacher who helped her students cheat on assessments also provided tobacco to another student and smoked cigarettes with him.

Kuraroa Fay-Dorn Mitchell has had her registration cancelled after numerous incidents of helping students cheat on their tests, but claims she was a good teacher and was bullied out of her job.

The New Zealand Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal dealt with Mitchell's matter earlier this year, but she refused to attend a hearing.

The Tribunal's summary of facts said Mitchell would write 90 per cent of the students' speeches for them and encourage them to memorise the speech. She would then write out the speech on a whiteboard and place it behind a camera the students had to give their speech towards.

On other occasions she gave students the model answers to questions to copy out in class time, rather than the intended resource for students, and during an audio assessment provided the class with written text.

She also showed the students video clips with English subtitles when it was not supposed to have subtitles on it.

Mitchell would also provide students with work from other students to copy and complete as their own.

In her written response, Mitchell complained the principal bullied her and that there was no chance of a fair, unbiased process.

She denied providing a Year 10 student with cigarettes and smoking with him twice, saying he lied about it because she had caught him after he stole a school iPad.

She said the student had rallied others to make individual complaints against her.

Mitchell said in emails to the Complaints Assessment Committee she was a good teacher but was suffering depression due to her treatment at the school.

She did not provide direct evidence to support her denials, and the Tribunal agreed the allegations were true.

"The Tribunal does not see this matter as being at the lower end of the scale," the written decision said.

"The respondent has been, and at last communication remains, defiant, and not accepting that her conduct has been significantly unsatisfactory. There is a lack of remorse or acknowledgement."

The Tribunal noted supplying tobacco to a student was a criminal offence.

The Tribunal censured Mitchell, cancelled her registration, and annotated the register. She was ordered to pay 50 per cent of costs.