Former Broome Senior High School teacher barred from teaching for showing students inappropriate videos

A former Broome teacher has been barred from teaching for six months after admitting he showed high school students videos featuring drug use, nudity and violence and told them it was OK to swear in class. Geoffrey Clarke, 39, who worked as a casual relief teacher at Broome Senior High School, was disqualified from applying for teacher registration for six months because of serious misconduct. A State Administrative Tribunal ruling released this week revealed that in 2016 Mr Clarke told Year 8 and 9 students in separate classes that it was “OK to swear and listen to music in class”. He also showed Year 9 and Year 11 students YouTube videos that contained swearing, nudity, violence and simulated smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use and adult themes — then asked which students were the “dobbers” after a complaint was made about them being played in class. The ruling said Mr Clarke also made “inappropriate sexual references” during a sport class with Year 11 students, including referring to a female student “flossing her teeth with pubic hair”. He argued that comment had been made by male students, which he repeated when disciplining them. After he was dismissed from employment at Broome SHS, Mr Clarke communicated on Facebook with a former Year 11 student, sending inappropriate messages regarding the student’s sexual orientation and their appearance relative to their sexual history. The messages also referred to the student’s sexual experience, asking them to specify numbers of sexual partners and whether they were male or female. In its ruling, the tribunal said Mr Clarke’s conduct could potentially have lasting psychological and emotional consequences for students. It noted that showing students the videos, without any educational purpose, was “completely unacceptable conduct”, particularly for Year 9s who could have been as young as 13. “Exposing children to video content containing nudity (especially in the context of sexual activity), violence and simulated drug use, and which is not suitable for their age or level of maturity, is clearly not in the best interests of the children concerned, and risks normalising conduct which the law regards as criminal in nature,” it said. The tribunal said a three-year disqualification from registration would have been appropriate, but it had taken into account delays to disciplinary action which meant Mr Clarke had not worked as a teacher since 2016.