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Guest Character Profiles > Curtis Perkins Nathan Borg

Curtis Perkins 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Occupation: Maths and Physics Teacher at Erinsborough High

When new teacher Curtis Perkins arrived at Erinsborough High for his first teaching appointment, principal Susan Kennedy introduced him to fellow teacher Jane Harris, telling her that Curtis was deaf and would also be teaching some Auslan classes. Curtis told Jane that he had a cochlear implant and could lipread, and hoped that he would form a good enough relationship with his students that it wouldn't be a problem. Curtis quickly tried to help student Hendrix Greyson, who had returned to repeat year 12, and was struggling to cope with feeling like a failure, and Brent Colefax, who had just arrived at the school. With Hendrix and Brent at war with each other, an incident occurred in which all of Brent's records - including his academic history, juvenile record and fostering reports, as well as his psychiatric history - were leaked from the school system for anyone to see. Hendrix had been responsible, angry that Brent was getting close to Harlow, Hendrix's ex-girlfriend, but soon regretted it after reading Brent's file and realising how much he'd been through. As Curtis had been given permission by Jane to work on moving some of the records that day, he was immediately suspected of being at fault, but he insisted that he had triple checked everything that he'd done, and that they could check the upload history, which would back him up.

Over the next few weeks, Jane decided to trial implementing a year 13 for Hendrix and Brent, allowing them to complete their schooling without having to repeat everything they'd done in year 12, whilst also doing some vocational training. Though things got off to a rocky start, the idea was approved, but Jane felt that she needed better training in dealing with volatile situations. Hoping to attend a conference in Brisbane, Jane was intrigued when Curtis offered to help by taking over year 13 in her absence. Initially unsure that he could handle it as he was so new to teaching, Jane gave him a trial lesson to teach and was impressed, agreeing to let Curtis oversee year 13 for two weeks while she was away. With Jane gone, Curtis impressed Susan by setting Hendrix and Brent a task to design and manufacture their own product, a plan which seemed to make them both happier about being at school, and stop their constant fighting. Unfortunately, when Jane returned, she was put out to learn that Curtis had deviated from the planned year 13 programme, and she scrapped his task. Curtis wasn't about to give up, and when Hendrix then complained to Susan, the two teachers ending up at war with each other, with Jane giving Susan the ultimatum of firing Curtis, or she herself would quit. Susan told Jane that she was being ridiculous, and asked her and Curtis to talk to each other and find a way forward.

Jane and Curtis then tried to work things out between though, but he was adamant that he had more to offer to the year 13 programme than Jane realised, if she would give him a chance. When the difficult Mrs Vera Punt - who lived at 34 Ramsay Street - turned out to be Curtis's aunt, Jane went to visit her in hospital, after she tripped on the Easter decorations at Lassiters. There, Jane and Curtis finally managed to work things out, with Jane agreeing to Curtis's idea of using The Hive, a creative hub in Erinsborough, as somewhere that the year 13s could do vocational projects. When some power tools were delivered to The Hive for the students to use, Brent saw an opportunity to get Holden Brice off his back for good. Brent had been in a gang with Holden, and Holden had been forcing him to break the law for weeks, so that he would leave him alone and stop threatening him into rejoining the gang. Brent felt that if he could help him to steal the tools from The Hive, then it might finally get Holden to leave him alone, but the plan ended badly when both Curtis and a pregnant Nicolette Stone disturbed the robbery and were injured. His cochlear implanted damaged, and unable to find his phone in the dark, Curtis ran to the police station for help, unaware that Nicolette was still lying unconscious in the building. When Jane - Nicolette's mum - then arrived, intending to help Curtis to move the power tools, she was shocked to find Nicolette, as Curtis returned with the police and explained what had happened.

With Nicolette recovering and Curtis shaken by what had happened, it was agreed that the vocational part of the year 13 programme would be cancelled, and when Brent's part in the robbery was revealed, he went on the run. With Jane in Mildura, helping a school there to set up their own year 13 programme, Curtis was left in charge of teaching Hendrix and things went well. When Jane returned, she was pleased with the progress Curtis had made with Hendrix, but was determined to keep year 13 on track with her own vision. She was then shocked to learn that Curtis had been behind the call from the school in Mildura, as he had done teaching practice there, and thought it would be a good way to get rid of Jane for a few weeks so he could prove himself - with the revelation causing further damage to their professional relationship. When Brent was then caught by the police, Curtis agreed to give him a character reference and suggested that, to avoid a prison sentence, he could join the Australian Defence Force.

Though Brent had gone, he remained in a long-distance relationship with Harlow, much to the disapproval of her grandfather, Paul Robinson. Paul decided to try and set her up with Jesse Porter, a recent arrival in Erinsborough, but it quickly transpired that Jesse was more interested in Curtis - and the feelings were reciprocated. When Jesse then agreed to be Harlow's fake boyfriend, in order to get Paul off her back about Brent, it ended badly when Roxy Willis spotted Jesse and Curtis on a date together and assumed that Jesse was cheating. Having found out the truth about the secret relationship, Roxy agreed to keep quiet, but when Jesse dumped Curtis a few weeks later, an upset Curtis confided in Hendrix. Realising that Curtis had just been dumped by Jesse, Hendrix jumped to the same conclusion as Roxy - that Jesse was cheating on Harlow. Having believed that Jesse had dumped him because he was deaf, Curtis was surprised to learn from Hendrix that Jesse had been two-timing him and angrily confronted him outside Lassiters Hotel, where Jesse was working, calling him gutless and pushing him onto a luggage trolley.

The following year, after several fires were started in Erinsborough - including one in a bin at the school that Curtis had to put out - newcomer Zara Selwyn came under suspicion. It later transpired that Sadie Rodwell and Aubrey Laing had been starting the fires to try and get Zara expelled, but they were found out and they were the ones who were expelled. With Aubrey being home-schooled by her grandmother, Shannon, Curtis agreed to help out, and soon noticed that Shannon appeared to be having trouble with her hearing. After suggesting this to Shannon, she reacted badly, insisting that there was nothing wrong with her. However, a few days later, when Shannon walked out into the road and was almost run over, having failed to hear the car coming, she was forced to admit that she was worried about her hearing. Curtis offered to accompany her to a hearing test, where she was informed that she would need hearing aids, and she thanked him for everything he'd done for her.

A few months later, Curtis attended a street party on Ramsay Street to mark Toadie and Melanie's wedding. A couple of years later, Curtis helped Jane, who had taken over from Susan as Erinsborough High principal, to try and increase enrolments, when it looked like the school would be closed if things didn't improve. At the end of 2023, Curtis and Vera went to Europe for a holiday, and were accompanied on the flight by Sam Young, who was visiting her dad, Mike, in the UK.

A few months later, the school was still open, but had been downsized and was sharing the site with Eirini Rising, a retirment home being opened by Terese Willis. With Eirini Rising still under construction, and the plan to share the site in its infancy, the school received a visit from Lana Kline, the representative from the Education Department. That day, Slade Westall, a member of a gang who'd been causing problems in the area, had been seen at the school a couple of times, and Jane had asked Curtis to stay on high alert. When Curtis then found a knife in the school lockers, the building went into lockdown, leaving Lana with a poor impression of how the school was coping with the changes. Later that day, JJ Varga-Murphy visited Sergeant Andrew Rodwell and explained that he'd been the one who'd brought the knife into the school, terrified after he'd received a beating from Slade and hoping he'd be able to defend himself.

Episodes Featured
8546, 8557, 8565, 8572, 8581, 8593, 8594, 8597, 8598, 8607, 8612, 8617, 8647, 8653, 8664, 8689, 8778, 8784, 8804, 8810, 8815, 8816, 8903, 8919, 8998

Biography by Steve

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