A compulsory roll check was not done on arrival, and Gray took two children inside, leaving Choi with the van and the remaining children. <\/p>\n
This included a child in the front passenger row and one in the back sleeping.<\/p>\n
Gray returned to the van and took more children and bags inside the centre, then returned to let Choi take her lunch break.<\/p>\n
The tribunal heard Choi referred to there being \u201csleepers\u201d in the van and Gray recalled looking at the child in the front row and asking Choi, \u201cIs that it?\u201d<\/p>\n
That a child was in the back seat was not \u201cexpressly communicated\u201d by Choi, the decision said.<\/p>\n
The pair did not clearly communicate with each other about the number of children sleeping in the van, and Gray did not see the child in the back.<\/p>\n
She continued unpacking the van and took bags and equipment inside while monitoring the child in the front. Gray then took her inside when she woke up.<\/p>\n
Gray again came out to the van, this time with her daughter, and moved the van forward, approximately 20m, into its normal parking space.<\/p>\n
At 2.39pm, Gray locked the van and went back into the centre, leaving the child in the back seat unattended. <\/p>\n
She did not do a final check of the van to ensure that no children were still inside.<\/p>\n
Gray then left for the day. Choi remained at work and neither she nor the two other staff on duty noticed that the child was missing.<\/p>\n
The child was found at 3.28pm when a parent arriving at the centre to collect their own child saw movement in the van and the child inside screaming.<\/p>\n
After several minutes, the child was taken inside until their parent arrived.<\/p>\n
Both teachers apologised to the parents and the centre conducted a disciplinary process which included Gray and Choi participating in further professional development. A review of the centre\u2019s trip and vehicle-related policies also took place. <\/p>\n
The tribunal found both Gray and Choi guilty of serious misconduct but was also satisfied that the \u201cincident represents a one-off lapse\u201d. Both teachers were censured.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs Gray and Ms Choi fully cooperated with the proceedings, showed significant remorse and have undertaken appropriate professional development since the incident,\u201d tribunal deputy chair Catherine Garvey said.<\/p>\n
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A compulsory roll check was not done on arrival, and Gray took two children inside, leaving Choi with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,95,51,27079,2511,190219,51370,78,101,34438,37638,111,43,139,69,170464,55624,18843,11427],"class_list":{"0":"post-361190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-auckland","11":"tag-censured","12":"tag-child","13":"tag-choi","14":"tag-gray","15":"tag-in","16":"tag-left","17":"tag-locked","18":"tag-michelle","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-preschool","24":"tag-rochelle","25":"tag-teachers","26":"tag-van"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361190","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=361190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}