Response to Complaint regarding Teacher’s Facebook Comments

Fynn Raven
Investigations Advisor
Teaching Council
[email protected]

Response to Complaint regarding Teacher’s Facebook Comments

Good morning,

1. The Free Speech Union is a registered trade union with a mission to fight for, protect, and expand New
Zealanders’ rights to freedom of speech, conscience, and intellectual inquiry. We believe that freedom
of speech is not only a legal principle, but a social good that allows for people in modern liberal
democracies to peacefully, freely advocate for the causes they care about without risking unjust
retribution.

2. [REDACTED] has asked us to write to you regarding a complaint made against her by a member of
the public, [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] understands that the complaint relates to comments she made
on New Zealand First’s Facebook page. She has asked us to respond on her behalf to the Triage
Committee’s request for assistance in considering the next steps.

3. The complaint relates to numerous comments made by [REDACTED] on a New Zealand First video post
on Facebook captioned, ‘Winston Peters: We’re removing the indoctrination obsession from education’.
The basis of [REDACTED]’s complaint was the following comment from [REDACTED]:

“The Teacher Council have recently made a submission AGAINST the Treaty Principles Bill on behalf of
ALL teachers. Nobody asked me what my opinions are. I am a Primary school teacher who is fed up [with] the indoctrination going on in the Education sector. The Maorification of school life is going too far.

All students deserve to be valued EQUALLY. Our culture today in NZ is a blend of all cultures who live here today. [T]his should be reflected in the classrooms. What is NZ First going to do about this?”

4. [REDACTED] asserts that, in making the above comment, [REDACTED] has “violated” the Teaching
Council’s Code of Conduct, specifically, with respect to manaakitanga: creating a welcoming, caring, and
creative learning environment. He further states that his desired outcome is for [REDACTED] to
complete an “Unteach Racism” programme.

5. Recently, there has been a concerning trend of individuals actively searching online for those who
express views they disagree with, particularly professionals subject to regulation by a governing body,
solely to lodge complaints against them or their employers. Such actions are often vexatious and
unrelated to genuine concerns about a person’s ability to perform their role. Rather, they serve as a 
means of punishing and silencing individuals for their opinions, with the intent of deterring them from
speaking out in the future and pressuring others to self-censor views that may be unpopular or outside
the mainstream.

6. Registered teachers do not forfeit their civil liberties, including their right to free speech, upon entering
the profession. Accordingly, the Teaching Council has no jurisdiction to monitor or regulate a teacher's
personal Facebook comments in this manner, and [REDACTED] should be made aware of this. [REDACTED], like all teachers in this country, is entitled to express her views on education without the fear of
a Teaching Council investigation, particularly when the complaint has no bearing on her professional
competence or ability to perform her duties to a high standard. This principle is fundamental to the
values of a liberal democracy.

7. For this reason, the Triage Committee should decide to take no further action, as there is nothing to
investigate. This is simply an individual exercising her right to express her views, just as [REDACTED] and
everyone else in the comment section of that Facebook post did. Should this complaint be pursued
further, the Free Speech Union will support and publicly advocate for [REDACTED]’s case to ensure her
right to free speech is upheld.

Yours faithfully,
Free Speech Union (New Zealand) Inc.

Hannah Clow
Senior In-house Counsel
[email protected]
022 635 9407