Teacher charged with intercourse abuse of stripling boy was allowed to hold on working for 2 years
A teacher accused of raping a student on a school trip was allowed to keep teaching for two years before her arrest on nine child abuse charges
Deandra Kontou, 32, was arrested over the alleged rape of an underage student(Image: Instagram)
A teacher facing charges over the alleged rape of an underage student was permitted to carry on working in the classroom for two years. Deandra Kontou, 32, was arrested last week following allegations of rape, grooming, and sexual assault involving a child.
The Australian educator is accused of raping a boy under the age of 16 during a school excursion to the Great Barrier Reef in 2019. Court documents claim she forced the victim into sexual activity over a six-month period on the grounds of Newington College in Stanmore, Sydney.
The alleged abuse reportedly began when Kontou exposed the boy to indecent material before grooming him via text messages. She is then claimed to have coerced the child into non-consensual sexual acts on two separate occasions.
Kontou was working at Newington College when the alleged offences took place(Image: Newington College)
The alleged rape took place on Fitzroy Island during a senior boys’ trip organised by the prestigious fee-paying school.
Kontou is accused of sexually touching the boy during the day before carrying out a sexual assault later that night. Colleagues were alerted to the claims shortly after the trip, and Kontou was granted a leave of absence.
Concerned parents contacted the head of year seven when she failed to return to campus, only to be told she would no longer be replying to emails and requested privacy.
She was later quietly dismissed by the school before taking up a new role at Georges River College Senior Campus in Oatley in 2024.
Kontou spent two years teaching history, geography and culture at the school before her arrest last week.
She now faces nine child abuse charges, including aggravated sexual assault, four counts of sexual assault and using an electronic device to groom a victim.
Kontou was granted bail after appearing at Sutherland Local Court, where she was ordered to hand over her passport and banned from stepping foot on school premises.
Her bail conditions also forbid her from contacting the victim, teaching minors, or being near any child without a parent present.
Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car has now demanded an urgent review into how Kontou was cleared to work at the school in 2024.
Her teaching accreditation has been revoked by the NSW Education Standards Authority, and she has been removed from the department payroll.
The charges do not relate to her time at Georges River College Senior Campus, and she faces no criminal allegations regarding her conduct over the past two years.
In a letter sent to parents, Oatley principal Anna Girginis did not say whether the school was aware of the active police probe when hiring Kontou, while urging any affected students to access support services.
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education told the Daily Mail: “The NSW Department of Education has taken every possible action at each stage of the investigation in accordance with police instruction.”
