Convicted teachers working in classrooms | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Teachers with convictions for violence and alcohol offences could be working in Rotorua classrooms.

At least 64 Bay of Plenty teachers are registered as having convictions.

One Bay of Plenty teacher has been struck off in the past 12 months for an alcohol or drug offence.

The New Zealand Teachers' Council would not say where in the region the teacher worked.

The figures were released to The Daily Post in the same month a former Rotorua deputy principal was found guilty of sexually assaulting two boys while they were pupils at his primary school.

Former Selwyn Primary School deputy principal and teacher Glen Rohan Lovatt was found guilty of five charges relating to two boys.

And in November last year former teacher Shiu Nadan was found guilty of breaching prison release conditions and two counts of drink-driving. He had been jailed in May 2010 for 10 months for assaulting his then-pregnant partner, later reduced to six months on appeal.

Some teachers in the classroom have a range of convictions from drink-driving, drug offences, dishonesty and violence.

Under section 139AP of the Education Act 1989, a teacher is required to inform the council within seven days when they receive a conviction.

The registrar of every court must report to the council when a person they believe to be a teacher, is convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment of three months or more.

Head of the Secondary Principals Association and John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh, who sits on disciplinary tribunals, said the system worked well to ensure "the guilty are removed".

"But my personal view is that the tribunal hearings ought to be in public. Teachers ought to be treated the same as other professions. There's strong public interest in teachers with serious criminal convictions." He said he agreed with suppression orders to protect victims.

"We share the view that teachers should be fit and proper to teach children," he said.

"Some [deregistered teachers] in the past have come from Rotorua region but I don't think our city is disproportionately represented. When you consider there are 80,000 teachers, this only represents a small fraction. I wouldn't want the public to be alarmed."

A New Zealand Teachers Council spokesperson said the list relates to the total number of convictions in the Bay of Plenty area and many convictions may be from 10 years ago.