The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal has found a teacher guilty of serious misconduct after she locked up an early childhood centre, leaving a child asleep in the centre.  The child’s parent attended the centre sometime after the child had been locked in and discovered that the buildings were locked up.  She managed to get access by contacting staff at another facility on site who had keys to open up the centre.

The Tribunal found that the teacher was negligent in her checking of the centre before locking up and that this amounted to serious misconduct.  After her negligence was discovered the teacher was extremely apologetic and readily accepted her responsibility for the incident, apologising to the family and to the Disciplinary Tribunal for her inadvertent actions.

The teacher was censured and had conditions placed on her practice for 18 months.



Alan Knowsley
Education Lawyer
Wellington