Gloriavale teacher Malachi Faithful censured over vacuum pipe assault on student

| NZ Herald | Brianna McIlraith |

When a 14-year-old student made an “obnoxious comment” to Gloriavale teacher Malachi Faithful, he smacked him with a vacuum cleaner pipe.

The incident happened in 2013 – but took the student nine years to speak up, after he left the West Coast Christian community.

He then laid a complaint with police, who charged Faithful with assault with a weapon in 2022.

Faithful pleaded guilty and was discharged without conviction but was ordered to pay $1250 emotional harm reparation to the former student.

Following the criminal proceedings his conduct was referred to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal, which has censured Faithful for serious misconduct.

In a recently released decision, tribunal chairman Jamie O’Sullivan said Faithful’s conduct was intentional, albeit impulsive, use of physical force for the purpose of behavioural correction.

“While the incident may be regarded as isolated, it nonetheless constitutes a relatively serious example of the use of force against a student,” O’Sullivan said.

At the time of the incident Faithful was 27 and just one year into his teaching career.

Students were asked to line up and when a student made an obnoxious remark to Faithful, he picked up a vacuum cleaner pipe and slung it towards the victim’s legs, striking him on the leg.

Faithful said he apologised to the class. The victim received no lasting injuries.

The decision said Faithful had told police he was a young teacher perhaps struggling to cope with the stress of the classroom environment and acted out of character in a “brief moment of frustration”.

O’Sullivan said in her decision that the conduct amounted to deregistration but because he had accepted his misconduct, apologised and had a clean record before the incident, censure was appropriate, with conditions to his practising certificate.

Faithful was also ordered to pay $3246 in costs to the Teaching Council’s Complaints Assessment Committee and $427.30 in tribunal costs.

Gloriavale Christian School has had its registration as a private school cancelled, a decision by the Ministry of Justice that is the subject of an ongoing judicial review in the High Court.

The Secretary for Education decided to cancel the registration after considering findings by the Education Review Office.