The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal has decided not to cancel the registration of a teacher who picked up a child and then dropped them on the floor.  The Disciplinary Tribunal considered that this amounted to serious misconduct, but this was a one-off incident which was a result of the teacher’s ill-health at the time.  The teacher has been ordered to undergo mentoring for a period of a year.

Interestingly this decision followed the teacher completely denying picking up and dropping the child, but she was found to have done that by the Disciplinary Tribunal. This lack of insight into serious misconduct usually results in deregistration.

Alan Knowsley

Education Lawyer
Wellington