A teacher who encouraged students to jump off cliffs in Vanuatu, hosted hikes through surging creeks and took excursions that warranted the aid of emergency services has admitted he might have been "over-confident" in his outdoor education experience.
The teacher is a principal of a private school that provides primary and secondary distance education.
He came before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in May accused of endangering students' welfare.
He had, the Queensland College of Teachers claimed, demonstrated reckless behaviour that made him unsuitable to teach.
These concerns arose from several incidents.
The first was a 2012 school trip to Vanuatu in which the principal bundled students onto a luggage tray off a moving truck, let them travel in banana boats without life jackets and encouraged them to jump into the sea from cliff faces about seven metres high.
A second excursion to Mount Barney National Park was also fraught with danger.
Considerable rain had fallen in the days preceding the planned trip but the principal went ahead with it despite the creek swelling from the wet conditions.
"(A) teacher in the small group fell while crossing and was swept 10 to 15 metres downstream," the QCAT document reads.
Eventually the swollen creek rose to waist level and the State Emergency Service was brought in to get everyone across safely.
The principal came under fire yet again in October 2013 for letting a student ignite substances such as potassium nitrate, copper and magnesium as part of a science fair display without any protective equipment.
The principal has had his teacher's registration suspended for six months.
However the suspension itself has been wholly suspended for 12 months from May 2015.
From today's Brisbane Times
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