Top Gun, battle wounds and the ceremonial sword: Commander Li’s classroom stories
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Former students claim teacher Mike Li brought a sword into school, and shared “outlandish” stories about his military service.
The Teaching Council is already scrutinising a video-recorded incident in which Li pointed a school-owned slug gun in a classroom and warned students not to be late “otherwise bad stuff happens”.
Former veterans and medals experts have also questioned Li’s entitlement to a rack of medals and badges he wore to a 2023 Anzac Day parade.
He’s under scrutiny over his military credentials and a slug gun classroom incident - and has voluntarily stood down from the classroom. Now students and colleagues have revealed details of his unusual approach to teaching. Steve Kilgallon reports.
The high school teacher under scrutiny for waving a slug gun in class and for his claims of an illustrious military career has voluntarily left the classroom while under investigation by the Teaching Council.
Marlborough Boys College advised parents last Friday that physics teacher Mike Li - known as Commander Li - had stood down.
In a subsequent statement to Stuff, Tim Burfoot, the acting presiding member of the College board, said:
'The school has advised its community that a staff member has voluntarily relinquished their practising certificate while a Teaching Council process is being undertaken. The matters under consideration relate to events that occurred before the teacher joined the school.
“The staff member is not currently carrying out a teaching role while this process is ongoing. As this remains an active process, it would be inappropriate to comment further beyond the information already provided.'
In the email to parents, the school said they couldn’t comment on the Teaching Council enquiry and added that while they understood “that members of our community may have questions; however, there are limits to the information that can be shared while the matter is under consideration”.
The development came as past and present students provided an insight into Li’s eccentric classroom world - which is said to have featured ceremonial octopus-skin swords, routine uniform inspections and crossing paths with the inspirations for the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun.
Former veterans and medals experts have questioned Li’s entitlement to a rack of medals and badges he wore to a 2023 Anzac Day parade, including an MBE, Military Medal and a Mention in Dispatches.
The Teaching Council is also scrutinising an incident - caught on video - in which he pointed a slug gun in a classroom and warned students not to be late“otherwise bad stuff happens”.
A slug gun isn’t the only weapon it’s claimed Li - who uses the honorific Commander and drives a Bentley with a personalised CDR LI number plate - has handled in a classroom.
Multiple students have told Stuff Li regularly brought a sword into school - one which they claimed he told them he had been given by the Queen.
Several said it could also often be seen tucked behind the passenger seat of his Bentley.
Li - who has taught at Shirley Boys’, Cashmere High, New Plymouth Boys’ and Marlborough Boys’ College - sometimes asked students to address him by the honorific Commander, multiple students have told Stuff. An army veteran previously told Stuff Li had told him he had commanded a British Navy nuclear submarine.
However, several people spoken to by Stuff said Li was a good teacher at a time when it’s difficult to find specialist high-school science teachers.
One reader wrote in to say Li shouldn’t lose his job because he had taught her son well: “I for one would prefer a teacher that is quirky and great and teaching any day, over no teacher, or a useless one.”
A former New Plymouth student, now in tertiary education, said he was in the room on the day that Li pointed a slug gun and warned students not to be late “otherwise bad stuff happens”.
“It was just shocking to have that happen inside a school to be honest, it didn't feel safe,” said the student.
“It shows in the video how he said it… it's a pretty terrible thing to do, it’s a bit scary. [The student concerned] got very upset, he was just about in tears. He was very shook up and upset. None of us got an apology from the SLT [school’s senior leadership team] or from Commander Li himself.”
He said Li had shown photos and videos he claimed to have taken while on service and a video of a jet flyover which students believed were stock footage and images.
Among those claims, said the student, was an association with “the real Ice Man and Maverick” - a reference to characters in the 1986 Tom Cruise film ‘Top Gun’, which was based on the The US Navy Fighter Weapons School, which trains navy fighter pilots, and is known colloquially as TOPGUN. Two other students and a former teaching colleague told Stuff they had heard the same claims.
“He’d base all his classes around military situations,” said the New Plymouth student. “Any chance he had to bring up the army or the navy or his service time, he’d mention it. It was almost like our classes were themed around it. And yes, there were a lot of Top Gun references and his time to do with those people.
“We had to call him Commander, and we had to line up in single file before class to have our uniform inspected and good posture … he ran a very strict programme. But he actually was a good quality teacher, he was good at getting his point across. The boys have said that to me, that he was a good teacher.” Another former New Plymouth student said Li told him he had been shot in the leg in combat, had regularly brought in the sword and mentioned his command of the nuclear sub. “There were a lot of outlandish stories about where he had been and what he had done.”
Li left New Plymouth partway through the 2024 academic year and multiple sources have told Stuff he said that was because he was ill with cancer and was retiring. “He told us that and we had an assembly for him leaving,” said one of the New Plymouth students.
In 2025 he began teaching at Marlborough Boys’ College.
Stuff has spoken with several MBC students taught by Li.
“He showed the class the sword a few times,” said one senior student. “He’s talked about winning the medals and he’s shown photographs. He told us he was a weapons operator and he showed us pictures of the weapons. He talked about the submarines and he definitely mentioned the [British Navy nuclear submarine] HMS Resolution. No one really questioned it.
“After [the first Stuff] article, everyone is talking about it and a few people have said things to him.”
Another MBC student said Li had talked about his 11 years service in the Royal Navy and Marines and active duty in the Gulf War and claimed Li said he had been shot in the upper leg. He said Li showed photos of the submarine he claimed to have commanded and had it as his computer wallpaper. He also had seen the sword on several occasions. He said since Stuff published details of its investigation, one student had received a lunchtime detention for saying the words ‘stolen valour’ to Li.
A former Shirley Boys’ student said Li was a disciplinarian who once made him stand staring at a wall for 45 minutes for talking - in a neighbouring classroom to his. “He had a challenge for a chocolate bar to find his 'real name' or anything about him online, which surprisingly always came up with nothing/very limited things,” he said. Others also recalled that challenge.
Current Shirley Boys’ head Tim Grocott - who was not the head when Li taught there - said he’d not heard of that challenge and said the school had not received any complaints about Li or had any concerns raised about his military record during his employment.
Marlborough Boys’ College board spokesman Tim Burfoot told Stuff: “The school is still working with the various parties involved to determine the facts around the allegations involving Mr Li. We will respond when that process is complete.”
A Marlborough Boys’ parent said as of Wednesday, there had still been “nil’’ communication with parents about Li.
Contact the reporter: steve.kilgallon@stuffdigital.co.nz
Li has not responded to repeat requests for comment from Stuff, including questions about his classroom conduct.
New Plymouth Boys’ principal Sam Moore previously told Stuff the school was aware of the slug gun video and of concerns about Li’s military credentials and “both concerns were taken seriously and addressed directly at the time”.
Moore said the slug gun belonged to the school and was used during science lessons to demonstrate the ballistic pendulum, but the “way it was used in the video showed a serious
He had not responded before deadline to Stuff questions about whether the school had alerted the Teaching Council to the slug gun incident when it learned of it.
In a statement, the Teaching Council said employers had “legal obligations to report certain matters to the Teaching Council. This includes situations where there are concerns of serious misconduct, where a teacher is dismissed, resigns during or following conduct or competence concerns, where a complaint is received about a former employee within 12 months of their departure, or where ongoing competence concerns remain after support has been provided”.
“As previously noted, the Council is aware of this matter and is actively considering all relevant information. This includes whether mandatory reporting obligations have been met.”