24 Apr 2017

Teacher censured for slapping student across the face

4:11 pm on 24 April 2017

A teacher who slapped a student, who also happened to be her grandson, has been censured by the Education Council's disciplinary tribunal.

The tribunal said the teacher panicked because money had gone missing from her desk and the child, 11, had been acting silly and was laughing while she was trying to find it.

It censured the woman and required her to undergo six months of mentoring.

The decision said the woman was overseeing a collection for the family of a student whose parent had died and had $1298 in two envelopes on her desk.

She found the money was missing and appealed to the children in her class to find the money.

But the boy and two others started to wander around the class and laugh.

The teacher told the tribunal she lost control and slapped the boy because of her frustration and worry, causing him to cry.

She said it was an isolated event that was out of character and happened in unusual circumstances.

The tribunal said the woman had demonstrated remorse and completed three anger management sessions.

It accepted the incident was out of character.

The tribunal said the woman had shown poor professional judgement in counting the money in the classroom.

It suppressed the teacher's name and any other details that might identify the student.

The incident took place in November 2015.

Read the full decision by the tribunal (PDF, 2.4MB)