The New Zealand Teaching Council massively understated the extent of a privacy breach it suffered earlier this month, discounting hundreds of people caught up in the scandal, a 1News investigation can reveal.
The professional body is responsible for investigating complaints made against teachers, but is now investigating itself after accidentally publishing data from its private emails online.
Chief Executive Lesley Hoskin apologised profusely last week, after a shocking level of detail appeared for anyone to find on Google. The breach included details on everything from police inquiries, to abuse in schools and inappropriate relationships between teachers and students.
But in an email to teachers across the country, which has now been leaked to 1News, the chief executive claimed the breach was limited to just 43 people.
“A spreadsheet containing information relating to 43 individuals, who had previously corresponded with us, was inadvertently and unintentionally available to the public,” the email read.
“If we have not contacted you about this matter, you are not involved in the breach.”
Highly sensitive information discussing complaints and investigations against dozens of teachers and principals has been accidentally published online. (Source: 1News)
However, 1News has a copy of that spreadsheet, and can reveal the breach is far more widespread than the Teaching Council suggests.
The breach was actually discovered by a 1News reporter, who alerted the Teaching Council and the Privacy Commissioner after the information popped up in a completely unrelated Google search on another story.
Our review suggests the spreadsheet actually includes more than 400 names, almost 10 times the number stated by the Teaching Council.
They are named in emails collected between 2020 and 2021, involving a wide range of people from teachers, to principals, parents, students, members of Parliament and general members of the public.
Most listings use full names and contain surrounding detail on a variety of issues. A few carry just the last name.
While some appear to be routine inquiries, at least 70 contain highly sensitive information. That includes allegations of sexual conduct, privacy breaches, discussion about the mental health of students, disputes at schools and information on complaints and investigations into the conduct of teachers and principals.
Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) president Melanie Webber said the Teaching Council had made a “bad situation worse”.
“We have real concern about the Teaching Council and their management of this,” she said.
“It's really upsetting to have a professional body that is treating teachers with such a lack of respect, with a lack of accountability and transparency."
Webber said she had been in correspondence with people who are “absolutely devastated by this”, including a teacher who had a false complaint laid against them, but had now been named online.
“I would ask them to be really upfront and making contact, to make sure they've contacted all those people who are named in the document, because although some of them may be people who may be up for what are considered to be quite minor offences, for them to be named in a document alongside others has been very upsetting.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the Teaching Council agreed to do just that – and issued an apology.
“Although we do not currently believe the remaining individuals were affected by the breach, due to concerns raised by TVNZ, we will write to all of those who were named in the spreadsheet,” the statement reads.
“The Council understands this is concerning for all and sincerely apologises for this occurrence.”
A spokesperson confirmed that an independent external review will now be held to look into both the “cause of the breach” and the “Council’s handling of it”. A reviewer named Jenn Bestwick had been appointed.
The findings would be given to the Governing Council in late February 2022, with the organisation vowing to “release the report and to act on its findings and recommendations”.
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