The three incidents<\/p>\n
The decision noted that, in the first incident, Clark stood over and scolded a 5-year-old with a disability after he hit a teacher aide.<\/p>\n
Clark and the teacher aide repeatedly told the boy to apologise for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
Another teacher also joined in and began yelling at the boy.<\/p>\n
The incident was reported to the principal, who told both teachers that, if anything like it happened again, they would receive a formal warning.<\/p>\n
In the second incident, Clark \u201cgrabbed and yanked\u201d a 5-year-old girl by the upper arm, the decision said.<\/p>\n
Justine Clark was before the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal for her conduct. Photo \/ David Clarkson<\/p>\n
The grabbing was firm and forceful, but not hard enough to leave a bruise. Clark then forcefully put the girl in a chair while yelling.<\/p>\n
The teacher aide told the tribunal that Clark had \u201ctotally lost her rag\u201d as the girl was crying and screaming.<\/p>\n
The third incident was similar, with a teacher aide seeing Clark grab a 5-year-old by his upper arm and forcefully push him down into a chair. <\/p>\n
Clark then said to the teacher aide words to the effect of, \u201cDo you see what I have to deal with?\u201d The boy was left in tears.<\/p>\n
A teacher told the principal of concerns about Clark, and in October 2020, she was placed on discretionary leave with pay while the incidents were investigated.<\/p>\n
Clark then resigned, and a mandatory report was filed with the Teaching Council.<\/p>\n
The school has been approached for comment. <\/p>\n
Children were \u2018complex\u2019, tribunal heard<\/p>\n
According to the decision, Clark complained that she had been allocated to a new entrants class, although she did not think she was the right person for it, and was aware that there were \u201csignificant challenges\u201d in the class.<\/p>\n
She referred to children hitting, kicking and using \u201cgang signs\u201d with each other.<\/p>\n
There were several children in the new entrants class with complex needs.<\/p>\n
Clark told the tribunal she was unable to build relationships with the pupils. They did not respond well to small group teaching, and often threw things.<\/p>\n
She claimed she was having regular panic attacks on the way to school and was worried about \u201cwhat I would get yelled at for doing today\u201d.<\/p>\n
She was aware that her actions were wrong, and she had never acted that way before or since.<\/p>\n
She said it did not reflect her values or ability, and she deeply regretted any lasting effect her behaviour may have had on the children.<\/p>\n
She accepted that her use of force was \u201cunjustified and unreasonable\u201d and that her \u201caggressive behaviour towards all three children\u201d put into question her fitness to teach.<\/p>\n
She was particularly ashamed of the first incident, saying the \u201caggressive and persistent haranguing he received would have been particularly distressing for him. It would have been frightening and nonsensical\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tribunal chairwoman Jamie O\u2019Sullivan said the conduct harmed the children involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are three separate incidents of poor treatment of very young children, over a period of approximately four months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of gang signs by 5-year-old children may well suggest difficult home lives. But none of that appears relevant to the current conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Clark failed to have appropriate teaching practice and self-regulation. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo special behavioural plan is needed to approach children with calm and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan said the tribunal was not satisfied that Clark would conduct herself in accordance with the required standards if she were met with another period of stress or a challenging class.<\/p>\n
Clark was therefore censured. The register was annotated for one year, and she had to follow conditions if she were to return to teaching, including providing potential employers with a copy of the decision for a period.<\/p>\n
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice, mainly 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":"While the tribunal heard the matter last year, it publicly released its decision today. That decision censured Clark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[103976,74,1975,1558,27079,1061,18788,5760,238736,5836,111,43,139,69,90,238737,4062,1240,16715,85316,7574,27406,3382,4524,1316,79227,1530],"class_list":["post-472990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-5yearold","tag-after","tag-at","tag-been","tag-censured","tag-children","tag-clark","tag-force","tag-justine","tag-lost","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-rag","tag-school","tag-south","tag-taranaki","tag-teach","tag-teacher","tag-teaching","tag-using","tag-want","tag-when","tag-whom","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472990","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=472990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}