‘Certificate 3 in prostitution’: Teacher demoted and moved schools over comments

The head of a department at a Queensland school has lost his appeal of a decision to demote him and force him to change schools over a series of creepy comments he was found by the industrial relations commission to have made to female students, including that one could have a “Certificate 3 in prostitution”.

Scott Alan Barnard also discussed his own nipple piercings, greek statues with erect penises, and told a student he was “glad it’s your butt warmth that I’m sitting in”.

The comments were made at various times in 2023 and 2024 to year 11 and 12 students at an undisclosed state school, who said he told he had drawn other students naked, and found it strange there were less pregnant students now than when he was in school.

According to the ruling, which he appealed to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) earlier this year, he made further comments of a sexual nature to a Year 11 student in 2023.

The names of the students and the school Barnard taught at have been suppressed.

“When ... student O sought your assistance with positioning paper for printing, you stated words to the effect that you thought as a girl she would ‘know plenty of positions’. Student O interpreted this to mean ‘sex positions’ and it caused her to feel uncomfortable and embarrassed,” it said.

He also told another student she had nice lips, and asked students to locate some “faggots”, which he said meant sticks, not the derogatory slur for LGBTQIA+ persons.

Barnard, who had been working for the education department since 2005, denied the conversations about the greek statues, making nude artworks, and the “positions” and prostitution comments.

According to the ruling, Barnard had received a sexual harassment complaint in March 2024, and an internal investigation found he should be disciplined for the allegation he had engaged in inappropriate and unprofessional manner towards students, which he denied.

Barnard had not been formally disciplined before, but had been subject to management action in 2023 after he made inappropriate remarks about a student’s physique, and said, “why go to the strip club when you can go to the beach and women are practically naked anyway”, the previous year.

In his appeal, Barnard argued he could not travel 50 minutes to his new school as he was the carer of a child with a disability, and he would have to teach outside his expertise.

Commissioner Peter O’Neill refused the appeal, telling Barnard he should have raised the issue of his caring for the child during the show cause process, and he had waited too long to launch his appeal.

The disciplinary decision was made in December, and took effect in March 2026, after which Barnard had 21 days to appeal the decision, but did not do so until April.