Teaching Council right to drop complaint – now it needs to get back to its core role.

“The Teaching Council is right to dump a vexatious complaint against a teacher for a perfectly lawful political comment online. However, taking more than six months to figure that out is ridiculous,” says ACT Education spokesperson Laura McClure.

“We’ve received reports of teachers in classrooms helping students make protest signs against the Treaty Principles Bill, and that’s somehow fine. Yet a teacher posting a personal opinion on social media is treated like a disciplinary case. The double standard is unreal.

“The Council cannot use its Code of Conduct to police teachers’ private political views. That’s not only wrong, it strays into breaching the law. But this case shows just how easily a supposedly neutral institution can drift into political territory. The Council took a public stance on the Treaty Principles Bill on behalf of all teachers without asking them, then treated disagreement like misconduct.

“That kind of behaviour chills free expression. Teachers shouldn’t feel they have to stay silent to stay safe from a disciplinary process that is itself a form of punishment.

“The complaint has now been dropped, and that’s the only acceptable outcome. But the Council needs to go further and:

• admit the complaint was vexatious and should’ve been rejected immediately;

• state clearly that lawful political views expressed outside work are not Code of Conduct breaches; and

• guarantee teachers won’t face months of uncertainty for disagreeing with the Council on the Treaty – or anything else.”

“Instead of playing politics, the Teaching Council should stick to its actual job: making sure teachers are properly vetted and qualified to teach our kids. Not punishing teachers for having a political opinion in their own time.”

Editor's notes:

Details of the case in question have been detailed by the Free Speech Union in this letter from March.

Ms McClure's previous comments on the matter can be found here.