Teacher 'made to feel like a criminal' over speeding fines

By ABIGAIL CASPARI in Rotorua
A Rotorua woman is appalled by the hassles she has had trying to get her teacher's registration renewed.

The delays are partly due to the woman not declaring her convictions. However, she did not realise she had any to declare.

The woman, who does not want to be named, says she feels like a criminal and cannot believe the time she has had to spend trying to clear her name.

She has been teaching for 20 years and in August when her teacher's registration expired she applied to the New Zealand Teachers' Council to have it renewed.

The council wrote back saying she had not declared that she had convictions and she was asked to explain why. Until she did the council would not consider her application.

Enclosed was a police traffic conviction history list showing she had been fined for speeding on four occasions and had been suspended from driving for three months after clocking up too many demerit points.

Although the woman disputed that one of the fines was hers, she accepted the others and that she had been suspended. She said the speeding incidents occurred while she was rushing to appointments for work and her employer was aware of them.

She was surprised to be told they were convictions. To be convicted of an offence she thought she needed to appear before a court. She had not made any court appearances, instead she had been issued with instant fines.

She claims she was told by a Rotorua police officer the speeding infringements had not been properly loaded into the police computer and the list the registration board received should have been headed Traffic Infringement History.

She said there needed to be changes made to the way speeding infringements were recorded otherwise her situation could have huge implications for her colleagues, many of whom are likely to have speeding fines.

The woman has written to the Office of the Commissioner of Vetting and Validation to see if it can do something about changing the way traffic infringements are recorded.

"I was so angry about the whole thing.

"I feel quite humiliated and outraged about what has happened. You feel like you are criminal when you are not."

When she contacted the New Zealand Teachers' Council she was told there were concerns over the number of speeding tickets she had.

She was then told by a council legal adviser that there were no hard and fast rules about the criteria needed to gain a teacher's registration.

The woman said she believed the criteria was not clearly defined.

She is still waiting to hear if her registration has been renewed but said she wanted to go public about her situation to warn other teachers about what could happen to them.

Her former registration has been extended until the matter is resolved.

New Zealand Teachers' Council chairwoman Joanna Beresford said she could not comment about an individual case.

However, she said if someone was caught speeding it was a conviction, although she knew there would be some people who were not aware of this.

The teachers' registration form clearly asks if a person has any traffic convictions. However, if someone didn't declare their convictions, either out of error or deliberately, they are asked to explain why.

She said the criteria for registration was clear and the woman's view to the contrary was not a "common view".

If a person had a conviction for a minor offence and if there was only one, it was unlikely to impede registration being granted.

"If the offence is repeated whatever it is for, that might raise questions about someone's suitability of being a teacher," Ms Beresford said.

Police national headquarters could not be reached for comment.