Rene Alan Chalmers

Richard McGrath of the Libertarianz party issued a press release late last night about Labour’s insistence on having registered teachers.

It is telling and you really have to wonder at Chris Hipkins continuing to insist that the kids are safer with registered teachers.

Libertarianz leader Richard McGrath today voiced his support for the prospect of charter schools competing with their state counterparts, and said concerns by Labour MP Chris Hipkins about registration of teachers deserve to be explored further in the interests of child safety.

“Registered teacher James Parker admitted at least 74 charges of sexual offending against young boys. He is still on the register of teachers, and as such Chris Hipkins probably believes he is safe to be supervising children.”

“On January 16 this year, registered teacher Douglas Haora Martin pleaded guilty to making upskirt videos of 17 unsuspecting young women and girls. Despite resigning from Lincoln High School on January 24, the Teachers Council kept him on their register until April 13. Chris Hipkins probably believes he was fit to be teaching schoolgirls during that time.”  Read more »

The various teacher unions oppose Charter Schools for many reasons, one of them is that the government legislation as proposed doesn’t require Charter Schools to have mandatory teacher registration like every other school. The unions and the teachers’ Council say this puts kids at risk.

Of course since they started taking this tack in their opposition to Charter Schools I have been cataloguing plenty of teachers, all of them presumably registered as required by law, committing all sorts of crimes from dishonesty offences through to deviant sexual predatory attacks on children…all registered so the kids could be safe.

A foreign exchange trader is alleged to have stolen more than $837,000 from investors – including family and friends.

Rene Alan Chalmers, a 42-year-old teacher from Pukekohe, appeared at the Auckland District Court today to face 15 charges including theft by a person in a special relationship and making false statements to investors.

The charges relate to him trading in foreign money and allegedly misleading investors.  Read more »