A grade 4 teacher who told students stories about incest and paid them for massages will be re-investigated by the teaching watchdog following a campaign by parents.
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Earlier this month, the Victorian Institute of Teaching controversially ruled that Caulfield Junior College teacher Chris Adams would keep his registration, despite being sacked by the Education Department for acting in a "disgraceful, improper" manner.
The regulator has now said it will investigate the matter again after receiving fresh information, although it did not say what the information was.
"The VIT takes its role in protecting children seriously and understands that the community must be reassured that our processes and decisions reflect the importance of this role," chairperson Lesley Lamb said.
The move comes amid mounting pressure on the regulator, with Education Minister James Merlino criticising its handling of the case.
"I could understand the community concern on this matter," he said.
"While VIT is an independent regulator, I am glad that this matter is being re-examined to ensure the community has confidence in the decision."
An independent review was conducted this year into a separate case involving a different teacher whom the VIT twice declared fit to teach, despite his admission to indecently assaulting a former student in the late 1980s.
At least five Caulfield Junior College parents appealed the VIT's initial decision, with one mother describing the ruling as "puzzling and unacceptable".
While the Education Department had barred Mr Adams from working in state schools, the institute's initial ruling meant he could teach in non-government schools.
One mother – whose child was in the teacher's class – said this inconsistency was appalling.
"I think it's too big a risk to take," she said.
The VIT initially placed the teacher on a remedial professional development program and said his registration would remain conditional during this process. Now that the investigation has been relaunched, these conditions have been lifted.
Mr Adams was suspended from the school in November 2015 after parents complained about his "inappropriate" storytelling.
He allegedly inserted his students' names into the stories, which detailed a student having a baby, a child falling in love and marrying her brother and a priest accidentally urinating on a girl's dress in a boys' toilet. He told students to keep the stories secret.
In one video obtained by Fairfax Media, two students massage the teacher's shoulders and head while the rest of the class bows down to him and cools him with fans.
He also gave his class a document detailing how to humiliate children by criticising their work, questioning their intelligence, shoving soap down girls' throats and spraying "two full cans of deodorant into her face, to give her a nice fresh smell".
Mr Adams tried to fight his dismissal with the Fair Work Commission, but it upheld the department's decision.
Its deputy president ,Anne Gooley, said she might have reached a different outcome if Mr Adams had not told students to keep the stories to themselves.
"This conduct was particularly serious as it legitimised children keeping secrets from others at the behest of a person in authority," she said.
