A deputy principal of a Coffs Harbour high school has been charged with getting three students drunk so they would vandalise the home of an enemy with him.
Andrew Minisini, who has taught at several high schools along the east coast of NSW, has been charged with buying alcohol for the girls, aged 16 and 17, taking them to a motel room to drink it and then going to a home in Urunga where they allegedly spray-painted obscenities on the outside walls.
Police would not reveal the intended target of the vandalism except to say the home belonged to a man who was known to the teacher.
Mr Minisini, 59, a single father from Valla Beach, is one of two deputy principals at Orara High School.
Online records show he has also worked at Endeavour High School in the Sutherland Shire, Tweed River High School and nearby Banora Point High School.
Mr Minisini allegedly struck up a friendship with one of his students and maintained ongoing contact before allegedly recruiting her and two others to trash the Urunga house on November 29.
He has been charged with two counts of recruiting a child to engage in criminal activity, one count of malicious damage and one count of supplying alcohol to three underage girls.
The students were interviewed at Coffs Harbour police station on Thursday and have been dealt with under the Young Offenders Act.
On Wednesday, police executed search warrants on homes in Coffs Harbour and Valla Beach, and Mr Minisini's school office, where they seized mobile phones and other electronic communications devices.
A Department of Education and Communities spokesman confirmed an Orara High School staff member had been charged and said his conduct was "most unusual".
"In circumstances such as these, teachers are immediately removed from school in order to manage any risk to students," the spokesman said.
"The staff at Orara High School take their duty of care towards students very seriously. Such alleged conduct by a staff member is most unusual and, if proven, is not tolerated by the school or the Department of Education and Communities.
"Every effort is made to ensure staff interact with students in a professional and caring manner."
Parents contacted Fairfax to express concern over the arrest although a neighbour of Mr Minisini described him as an upstanding citizen.
"That seems totally out of character, it can't be right," said the neighbour, who did not want to be identified. "He is a stalwart citizen."
A member from the Nambucca Heads Rotary Club said Mr Minisini was a member until about nine months ago and seemed friendly and quiet.
"He really didn't attend meetings and you didn't get to know too much about him because he didn't involve himself in many activities," said the member, who did not want to be identified.
Mr Minisini was granted conditional bail to appear in Coffs Harbour Local Court on January 20.
