The Education Council has revealed 81 teachers were disciplined for sexual misconduct against a student between 2015 and 2017 (file photo).

He stops strumming his battered Framus acoustic guitar to take a drag of his rolled up Port Royal cigarette.

Sam* inhales the rum-soaked tobacco deeply, almost burning through half the cigarette in one drag.

He holds the smoke in longer than expected and closes his eyes. The exhale eventually comes with a sigh. He hates talking about that time.

The times his teacher fondled him, then bought him gifts to keep him quiet.

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"He would touch my dick and say s... in my ear. I'll buy you stuff. All that kinda s... I hope that f...... c... dies," he says as his strumming picks back up.

The now 24-year-old is one of hundreds of Kiwi children damaged by paedophiles in the New Zealand school system.

In response to an Official Information Act request, the Education Council provided documents that revealed 81 teachers between 2015 to 2017 were found to have behaved in a sexually inappropriate way.

Of that number, 35 teachers were found to have molested children. The 46 remaining teachers were found to have been sexually inappropriate without touching.

Four of the teachers disciplined were sexually inappropriate while working in the Early Childhood sector.

From 2015 to 2017, the Education Council served 196 disciplinary outcomes to teachers for sexual misconduct. A teacher could have more than one disciplinary action taken against them.

In the same time period, 120,407 individuals had authorisation to teach children in New Zealand, a spokesperson for the council said. "While even one case of sexual misconduct toward a student is unacceptable, the numbers of teachers who come to our attention for such behaviour is a very small proportion of the profession."

Auckland had the most offenders in the time period at 14, followed by Bay of Plenty with 11, Wellington with 10 and Waikato with nine teachers disciplined.

Every teacher who receives a practising certificate agrees to a code of standards that sets out the ethical behaviour expected of teachers in New Zealand.

Waikato University senior psychology lecturer Armon Tamatea said sexual abuse on children is commonly committed by adults known to the child.

Tamatea said the perpetrator will groom others around them with the goal of getting the child alone, uninterrupted, to perform the abuse.

The abuser may then use a form of emotional blackmail, like withdrawing affection and using guilt to force the child to keep quiet.

"What we do know is that when children are sexually abused, it's more often than not by someone that they know," he said.

"For the child victims it throws up all kinds of things. Firstly issues around trust, because these are individuals they have developed an emotional connection with and it has been to their disadvantage where they have been taken advantage of in that way.

"As we develop cognitively, physically, emotionally we also develop sexually and when a young person is exposed to sexual behaviour before they have the emotional machinery in place, [they can not] conceptualise that experience in a way that is normal."

Tamatea said abuse will fundamentally change a child's outlook on the world and relationships with adults and their peers.

He said it was not uncommon for many sexual abuse survivors to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and in some cases schizophrenia.

Back at Sam's house, he strums his Framus while he thinks about the damage he sustained from the abuse.

"I don't know if what he did f..... me up," he said as he strums his guitar. "I feel normal, eh. Maybe I drink a bit, but who doesn't here."

He takes another drag of his cigarette, it burns down to his fingers. "I could have been something, eh. I could have been a doctor, but I had s... to deal with," he stubs the smoke out and exhales.

* Name has been changed