Deandra Kontou, a former Newington College teacher charged with nine sex offences over alleged abuse of a student in 2019, was hired by a Sydney public school in 2024 and remained there after police warned NSW education officials about complaints against her. The case has prompted an urgent departmental review into her employment and scrutiny of how she was allowed to continue teaching.

Kontou, 32, taught at Georges River College Senior Campus in Oatley and was reportedly still in classrooms last week, before the school removed her after learning police planned to charge her. She has been suspended without pay and, under bail conditions, cannot teach children, enter school grounds or go near children; she must report weekly to police and surrender her passport. Court documents allege the offending took place over six months in 2019, mostly during school hours at Newington’s Stanmore campus; she is due in Burwood Local Court on 25 November.