On 21 May, we wrote:
Here’s a link to an excellent article from Michael Wright (Stuff) that leads us to believe there was a Section 149 (employment mediation) operation.
UPDATE 25 June: The process of confirming that Mr Bond was subject to a "hush" contract (RoS) could take several more weeks, but in the meantime we can confirm that another sex offending teacher was subject to a RoS.
The confidentiality provisions in the RoS enabled the offending to continue for months at the offender's home (while providing music lessons), due to the Hawkes Bay principal's failure to notify police and the Teaching Council.
UPDATE:
Since then, Bond has been sentenced to 25 months imprisonment, and Michael Wright’s detailed follow-up article notes:
In March 2014, Bond was convicted of one count of indecent assault against [“Andrew”]. In May, he was sentenced to home detention and community work. The same day, he resigned from Otago Boys’. “Thank you for your resignation,” rector Clive Rennie wrote in reply. “The Board [of trustees] wishes to thank you for the tremendous service to the school over your 37 years as a staff member.”
Despite the shortcomings of the school’s handling of allegations against Bond over nearly four decades, and the niceties applied to Rennie’s acceptance of Bond’s resignation, we can say with 90% certainty that in this case there was no secret mediation with a resulting Record of Settlement. Bond’s conviction would have been grounds for summary dismissal from the school and by resigning on the day of his conviction he avoided that dismissal. Simple.
However, we do know of one teacher who was Section 149’d (secretly mediated) out of his Hawkes Bay school that same year. We reported on this on 24 June.