Ex-teacher uses trolley load of papers to show he's not "crazy"
The Advertiser (Adelaide)
SAT 18 JUL 1987
Ed: 2 - Metro
Pg: 019
Words: 523

By: DEBORAH CORNWALL

Within two months of being employed by the SA Education Department as a temporary drama/English teacher in July last year, UFO watcher Mr John Connaughton's contract was terminated because of his allegedly "bizarre" behavior.

But 12 months later Mr Connaughton is still claiming he was unfairly dismissed - and has hauled a small army of senior department officers, union officials, health professionals and teachers through the Equal Opportunity and Teachers' Appeal tribunals costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in attempts to prove it.

Yesterday, eight senior department officers and three union officials spent the day waiting to be called before the Teachers' Appeals Tribunal to answer Mr Connaughton's claim that the department had used his belief in unidentified flying objects as an excuse to dismiss him as a "crazy".

While the department has declined to comment officially on the claims, Mr Connaughton says the real reason for his dismissal is that he has been the victim of discrimination from the department on religious, employment, sexuality, marital status and racial grounds.

He has brought in the president of the SA UFO Society, Mr Colin Norris, to act as a character witness during the hearing. "A belief in UFOs certainly doesn't mean a person is crazy," Mr Connaughton said outside the closed hearing yesterday. "They just want to get me on any excuse."

Digging into his shopping trolley full of documents supporting the existence of UFOs, Mr Connaughton brandished a memo from the principal of the Smithfield Plains High School, Mr Jim Devitt. The memo stated that Mr Connaughton had told staff and students he had been in contact with beings from outer space and and that his life was threatened by a secret police force.

Mr Connaughton has refused to say any more on the case, but according to department sources it has since been discovered that Mr Connaughton made similar claims three years ago when, as a teacher in Victoria, he complained to the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board he had been the victim of harassment by staff members at Melbourne High School.

During the 18-month hearing in Melbourne, five teachers and the school principal were repeatedly called in as witnesses by Mr Connaughton to answer allegations which ranged from claims by Mr Connaughton that he had been called a "wog", a "bog Irishman", an "Anglo-Saxon bastard" and a "Kraut" by students and teachers to claims that staff members had removed confidential letters from his mail pigeonhole as part of a victimisation campaign.

Mr Connaughton was finally invalided out of the Victorian Education Department last year on the grounds that he had suffered ill health because of the incidents. He was employed by the SA department less than six months later.

As one department source said yesterday: "I suppose he has every right to defend himself through whatever legal forums are available to him - but meantime it is costing the department at least $10,000 a day for lost work time of our senior officers. If he isn't satisfied with the tribunal's judgment he can then go on to the Supreme Court."

The tribunal will hear further evidence from Mr Connaughton on September 28.