A teacher at a school for deaf in Melbourne who allegedly made students expose themselves in class has avoided prison because he has cancer.

The unnamed man, 55, asked students to expose their genitalia in class in the 1970s, the Victorian county court heard Thursday, Australian news agency AAP reported.

He was found guilty by a jury earlier this year of gross indecency, while a judge described his actions as 'offensive, humiliating and damaging to young and vulnerable children'.

But the judge later said the man should not be sen to prison because he had serious cancer and might die in the next five years.

Under the circumstances of his illness, the judge also ruled that the man's name should not be published.