An Auckland teacher had her registration cancelled after catfishing two colleagues with a fake Tinder profile - tricking one into a year-long online relationship.
A Teacher's Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in November 2022 heard that the teacher, whose name and school have been suppressed, pretended to be a man when talking to colleagues online, convincing them to send “intimate material”.
The teacher, who had just started her first teaching role, created a fake male character in 2019 using photos of AFL player Shaun Higgins, using Tinder to find her colleagues online.
Under the name "James" she would go on to talk to these women, one of them for months and the other for over a year, duping them into trusting her.
Over the course of a year, 'James' would become quite close with one of the women, sending messages almost daily, yet making excuses as to why they couldn't meet.
Their relationship would elevate to a romantic level, with the two sharing flirtatious, sexually charged conversations.
During that time, the woman sent a number of intimate photos to 'James', where he would respond with pictures found online.
This was all happening while she worked alongside them every day.
Eventually, her deception was picked up on, when the family of one of the women started to investigate.
After being reported to the principal of her school and Netsafe, she was charged with two counts of accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes. She plead guilty.
It later emerged the woman suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) - previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder.
The Mental Health Foundation describes it as a “complex and quite rare condition where more than one personality structure exists within you”.
“Each identity within you has their own pattern of thinking and behaving, which may be quite different from your established patterns.”
Now, the women who were catfished have been left feeling “distressed” and “embarrassed”, given the nature of the discussions and imagery shared.
In their decision, the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal called it a “difficult issue to consider”, given the woman’s mental health situation.
“It is clear from the material before us that the respondent was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and DID during the time of the conduct above. As did the criminal courts, we take that into account in assessing the seriousness.”
Despite this, they called the conduct “sufficiently serious together to make out serious misconduct”.
“We consider that it reflected adversely on the respondent’s fitness to be a teacher and otherwise may bring the profession into disrepute.”
The teacher had her practising certificate cancelled but still has the possibility to reapply should her situation improve.
“The Teaching Council will be better placed to inquire into the respondent’s situation at that time and discuss what steps may be needed to be put in place to obtain registration.
“That will all be a matter for the Teaching Council if and when that time comes.”
The woman is now seeking treatment for her DID.
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