{"id":158560,"date":"2025-11-28T20:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/158560\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T20:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:05:07","slug":"teachers-disciplinary-tribunal-censures-first-year-teacher-for-slapping-elbowing-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/158560\/","title":{"rendered":"Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal censures first-year teacher for slapping, elbowing student"},"content":{"rendered":"

He refused and held a yoghurt pot towards her, preparing to throw it<\/a>. The teacher warned him not to, and said, \u201cjust you try\u201d.<\/p>\n

The boy threw it, and the yoghurt landed on the teacher. <\/p>\n

She then raised her hand towards the student\u2019s cheek, but did not make contact, before pulling him up by his hand and dragging him towards the principal\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

The student<\/a> swore at her as she continued dragging him to the office. <\/p>\n

Outside the reception, the student was agitated and tried to pull away, but was held firmly by the wrist, with the teacher \u201croughly\u201d moving him around, according to the summary. <\/p>\n

When the student tried to wriggle free, the teacher elbowed him in the side of the head. The student responded by striking the teacher in the face. She then let go of the boy\u2019s wrist and slapped his face. <\/p>\n

The student then ran into the office and dove under a desk, crying loudly, yelling and swearing at the teacher. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoth were visibly distressed and covered in yoghurt,\u201d the summary stated. <\/p>\n

After the incident, the teacher told a senior colleague that she\u2019d struck the student but had felt panicked, unsafe and scared for the other children. <\/p>\n

She was a first-year teacher, had little training and support and was under personal and professional stress.<\/p>\n

Closed-circuit television captured the yoghurt-throwing incident and the teacher raising her hand, but the events inside the principal\u2019s office were not captured.<\/p>\n

The school investigated in the weeks following the incident, and the teacher was issued a final written warning.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m truly sorry for any pain I caused\u2019<\/p>\n

In submissions to the tribunal, the teacher said she deeply regretted her actions and apologised to the student, as well as other children who witnessed the incident. <\/p>\n

\u201cI realise that my actions were hurtful, not right, and I\u2019m truly sorry for any pain I caused,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am committed to reflecting on this and making sure I approach every child with the kindness, respect and understanding they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman said she wasn\u2019t aware the student had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), that she lacked classroom experience, and felt that she had minimal mentor support or orientation in her first year. <\/p>\n

The teacher\u2019s legal representative from NZEI, Janette Brown, told the tribunal that her client accepted she\u2019d failed to de-escalate the situation or seek help, and that she had misused force on a learner. <\/p>\n

Since the incident, the teacher has gained more experience in the profession and is now working with children with challenging behaviours. <\/p>\n

A complaints assessment committee of the Teachers Council laid charges of serious misconduct against the teacher, and said in submissions to the tribunal that any use of force by an educator must be proportional. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn a similar vein, the CAC submits that striking and restraining a student is likely to bring the profession into disrepute, and that teachers are expected to self-regulate their frustration and anger when dealing with challenging behaviour by a student,\u201d their submissions read. <\/p>\n

The tribunal said that the legislation was clear that physical restraint could only be used to stop a student from causing imminent harm to themselves or others. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tribunal agrees that the respondent\u2019s interactions with [the student] amount to serious misconduct,\u201d the tribunal said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tribunal considers that the respondent\u2019s conduct was serious and demonstrated a poor and harmful response to difficult behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tribunal found the woman had used excessive force in restraining the child.<\/p>\n

It censured her and ordered a note to be added to her registration and that she must disclose the tribunal\u2019s decision to any future employer for one year. <\/p>\n

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawat\u016b, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He refused and held a yoghurt pot towards her, preparing to throw it. The teacher warned him not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15122,74,44183,104641,9084,101557,104645,104644,104642,2082,42,1364,43,1523,104646,104643,9631,7574,18843,60048,40,38,41,39,6847,102,97788],"class_list":{"0":"post-158560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-8yearold","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-behaviour","11":"tag-censures","12":"tag-challenges","13":"tag-disciplinary","14":"tag-elbowed","15":"tag-elbowing","16":"tag-firstyear","17":"tag-for","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-her","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-over","22":"tag-slapped","23":"tag-slapping","24":"tag-student","25":"tag-teacher","26":"tag-teachers","27":"tag-threw","28":"tag-top-news","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topnews","31":"tag-topstories","32":"tag-tribunal","33":"tag-with","34":"tag-yoghurt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}