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Annabel Doust in 2021 during a ministerial visit to Wee Waa.Credit:ABC New England North West:Lani Oataway

The student,Dean Gray,died while camping along the Namoi River with friends in 2021. After he died,his mother discovered thousands of text messages showing he had been groomed in 2013by a female teacher.

“This is not just about a young boy having a fling with a teacher,” his mother,Cherina Gray,said. “This is definite grooming and abuse – abuse of power that someone has done in the most disgusting way.”

The Professional and Ethical Standards Directorate found sufficient evidence to show Doust had crossed professional boundaries with Cherina and Rob Gray’s son,then 17,while she was a principal at Narrabri High.

It found she sent him a friend request on Facebook in April 2013;she privately messaged him and engaged in inappropriate conversation between April and August;and engaged in a sexual relationship with him in 2013.

Doust has not been charged with any criminal offences. In a statement,NSW Police said Oxley Police District sought legal advice from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. “Following recommendations made by the DPP,there is insufficient admissible evidence to proceed with charges,” it said.

Doust was head of Wee Waa High School during a crisis in 2021,when students and staff kept falling ill due to mould exposure. In NSW Parliament,then-education minister Sarah Mitchell said she was in regular contact with Doust.

She paid “tribute to her for her leadership during what is an incredibly challenging time”.

There is no suggestion Mitchell had any knowledge of the relationship.

In 2021 – which is the most recent data available – more than 120 teachers were dismissed from the department or left during improvement programs. Fourteen of them involved sex-related violations,ranging from inappropriate touching to sexual misconduct.

They included a teacher convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a student;a head teacher convicted of historical sexual assault offences;and two principals who engaged in sexual misconduct.

Complaints against teachers,ranging from inappropriate sexual behaviour to breaches of the code of conduct,are investigated by the Professional and Ethical Standards Directorate,which employs professional investigators such as former police officers.

That unit was formed after a damning report into its predecessor,EPAC,found investigations were dragging on for years,and that the unit had cleared teachers who were banned from working with children by the Office of the Children’s Guardian.

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