New Zealand minister quits over bullying allegations

NEW Zealand’s junior education minister stepped down from his cabinet posts yesterday, after several students accused the former teacher of bullying them in the classroom.

David Benson-Pope denied the allegation but agreed to stand down while law officials carried out an inquiry, New Zealand’s prime minister, Helen Clark, said.

Two former students told the country’s TV3 News that when he was a high school teacher in the southern city of Dunedin, Mr Benson-Pope had stuffed a tennis ball in a student’s mouth and taped the boy’s hands to the desk for half an hour so that he could not remove the ball. The alleged victim, Phil Weaver, said he was being punished for talking in class.

Mr Benson-Pope, who has been a politician since 1999 and was a teacher for more than 20 years prior to that, was not available for comment. He was promoted to Ms Clark’s cabinet last year as minister of fisheries and associate minister of education.

Questioned about the allegations last week in the New Zealand parliament, Mr Benson-Pope said: "That is a disgraceful allegation and I refute it completely."

Other pupils made written statements to TV3 saying that Mr Benson-Pope had hit a student on the nose, causing it to bleed, and another said he had bled after being hit on the buttocks with a cane.