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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Dean Hearn Jason Buckley

Dean Hearn 2001
Occupation: P.E Teacher at Erinsborough High School

Arriving at Erinsborough High as the relief PE teacher, Dean Hearn was a man who took great pleasure from bullying children who could not fight back. One of his students, Leo Hancock, was new to the school and quite a bit smaller in build than many of his classmates. Leo’s father, Evan, another teacher at the school, confronted Dean, explaining that Leo had been skipping classes as he had felt victimised. Dean easily managed to palm Evan off, claiming that Leo had simply got the wrong end of the stick. However, during a soccer game on the school oval one day, Evan saw Dean pushing Leo to the ground, calling him a wuss. He quickly changed his tune when he saw Evan watching, and tried to make it look like he’d just been joking around. But Evan was determined to get something done and went to see principal Susan Kennedy. Susan was unsure who to support, particularly as Evan was defending his own son. When she spoke to Dean, he managed to manipulate her emotions, bringing up the subject of Jess Fielding, a young girl who had lied about Susan hitting her and almost caused the woman to lose her job.

However, Susan then witnessed more incidents involving Dean, as he got unnecessarily annoyed with some students and even shouted at Susan herself when she interrupted one of his classes. His temper finally got the better of him when he threw a board duster at Leo during a lesson, after accusing him of talking. Leo quickly went to report this to Susan, while, in a moment of panic, Dean tried to get the rest of the class to back him up, claiming that Leo was in the wrong. After the lesson, he went to the staff room and relayed the story to the rest of the staff, claiming that Leo was clumsy and was supposed to catch the duster, but it hit him in the head instead. Evan was furious, and a meeting between Dean, Evan and Susan took place. As Dean produced more and more excuses for what had happened, Susan had to ask Evan to leave, as he was barely able to control his anger. Susan told Dean that she couldn’t overlook the incident, and a full internal investigation would take place. However, Dean knew his time was up, so he accused Susan of treating him with less respect, as he was only a relief teacher, and he resigned.

Notes: Jason Buckley previously appeared as a waiter in 1995, a journalist in 1996 and returned as Trent Webster in 2004, Dan Stevens in 2005 and Ari Piven in 2007

Biography by Steve

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