An esteemed educator has had her teacher registration cancelled because of a relationship she had with a teenage student in the 1970s.

An esteemed educator has been struck off the teacher's register for a historical sexual relationship with a student.

Andrew*, 55, says he can now move on with his life, almost 40 years since he had a relationship with his fifth form English teacher at a Christchurch school.

"All my last years at high school were really involved with her."

In 1977, at 15 years old, the teen lost his virginity to his teacher. The relationship lasted three years, and came to an end when Andrew finished his schooling.

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He said it was not a consensual relationship, but was the result of the teacher grooming him.

"The whole thing was really disgusting. The whole thing became mechanical. There was no feeling or joy in it," he said.

The man and his family moved to New Zealand in 1965, when he was 4.

English was the family's second language, and his English teacher was a welcome friend.

"She really befriended the family. There was a good deal of grooming going on ... You get manipulated into something and you get tricked out of that. That's what a clever, manipulative person will do."

"I lived with the constant fear of being discovered – she told me it had to be kept secret."

In 1995, he sought counselling in an effort to address his ailing mental health, which he attributed to the post traumatic stress disorder he suffered as a result of the relationship.

"I was aware of the sexual abuse about 20 years ago in 1995 but I wasn't able to deal with it. I tried to normalise things and carry on. It wasn't until early last year that I just couldn't carry on the way I had been carrying on."

When he heard Louise Nicholas speaking about sexual abuse survivors on the radio, he was encouraged to spell out exactly what had happened to him in his teens.

"I really remembered everything ... and a lot of memories that occurred to me really flooded back and the enormity of it really struck me."

In July 2015, Andrew went to police to make allegations against his high school teacher.

A police spokesman confirmed police received a report about a historical incident of a sexual nature.

"Police made enquiries into the matter which included interviewing the victim.

"After reviewing the details provided to staff, alongside a review of the laws at the time of the offending and the Solicitor-General's Prosecution Guidelines, police were unable to progress the matter further," he said.





The complainant was referred to the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust and encouraged to take his complaint to the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.

In December 2015, the Education Council's Complaints Assessment Committee lay a notice of charge against the teacher, although it did not find the relationship between the complainant and teacher to be "abuse" because it could not objectively be sustained.

The committee referred the matter to the Disciplinary Tribunal.

On August 12, the Disciplinary Tribunal found the respondent to have engaged in serious misconduct and her teacher registration was cancelled.

Names and identifying details have been suppressed and the tribunal's full decision will be publicly available in September, once an appeal period ends.

In a letter addressed to the complainant, and obtained by Stuff, the tribunal reported concern with "what appears to be a lack of clear recognition or acceptance on the part of the respondent that she transgressed a fundamental professional boundary".

"The Tribunal wishes to state clearly that her crossing of that fundamental professional boundary with a current student was completely unacceptable whether assessed by today's standards or those of 1977."

Andrew hoped that by sharing his story, other male survivors of historical sexual abuse by women would come forward.

"What I did was normalise the chaos. It's really in this last year that I've dealt with these issues in a full way."

He said the pain never went away and the effects were deep and lasting.

"You carry that through with you through your adulthood."

The teacher did not respond to requests for comment.

* Name changed. All names and identifying details have been suppressed.