A “heartbroken” mum whose toddler was subject to aggressive outbursts by an early childhood teacher says she was never told her child was among those harmed by the now banned teacher.

It wasn’t until the woman read a Herald report this month on Sean Charles Quinn’s New Zealand Teachers’ Disciplinary Tribunal-imposed punishment that she learned he’d subjected 10 children to physical force and emotional abuse during more than a dozen incidents at Tauranga’s Kaleidoscope Childcare Centre in 2021.

This included grabbing the children forcefully and yelling in their faces.

The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, read the tribunal’s decision online and realised her child – then aged 2 – was among those harmed by Quinn

Quinn then had his teaching registration cancelled for two years and was censured for serious misconduct by the tribunal.

“It just breaks my heart … [more than] four years later and you just feel like a bit of a failure as a parent that you weren’t able to do something sooner. You feel like you’ve just absolutely let your child down.”

Kaleidoscope is owned by Tauranga couple Matt Wooten and Marama Vryer.

Wooten told the Herald: “We are not going to comment on this as we have communicated with all involved”.

The mother contacted Wooten and Vryer after reading the tribunal’s decision, and was told her child was among Quinn’s victims and “they wanted to tell me, but they were advised not to”.

Kaleidoscope Childcare Centre in Tauranga. Photo / Google Streetview

They didn’t say by who, she said.

“I’m just absolutely appalled. The daycare owners were like second family to us, I had so much trust in them … you have to sign a form for when they bump their head or stub their toe, so why are we not being informed about abuse?”

She’d since formally complained to police and the NZ Teaching Council.

“I feel profoundly let down that parents were not informed at the time, nor advised that an investigation was taking place … [and] cancelling his teaching registration for only two years does not reflect the seriousness of the harm caused to these children and their families.”

NZ Teaching Council interim chief executive Tom Gott confirmed they'd been contacted by a parent of a child in relation to former Kaleidoscope Childcare Centre teacher Sean Charles Quinn. Photo / NZ Teaching Council

Teaching Council interim chief executive Tom Gott said they were contacted on Tuesday by the parent of a child connected to the Quinn case.

“We recognise this is a deeply concerning situation for those affected, and that the council’s role in safeguarding learners, supporting quality teaching, and maintaining public trust and confidence in the teaching profession is critically important.”

Gott said they were in contact with the parent and unable to comment further until they’d been able to “fully respond to their concerns”.

Police declined to comment.

The woman said her child, now 7, struggles with teachers, shuts down emotionally and sometimes has difficulty engaging.

A psychiatrist had told her the child needed “a lot of praise and positive affirmation”, she said.

She couldn’t “say with certainty that this is connected”, but it was “incredibly painful” to now question whether some of her child’s challenges could be related to Quinn’s actions.

A psychiatrist first became involved in 2023, after the couple noticed concerning behaviours.

“[Kaleidoscope] actually asked me if I wanted to get a psychiatrist involved … so we went with a psychiatrist and even then they didn’t mention anything [about Quinn] … they didn’t even advise the psychiatrist who actually sat in at the daycare and saw [our child’s] behaviour.”

“I feel like [my child’s] been robbed of getting that help [they’ve] needed.”

She’d booked a new appointment with a psychiatrist after learning her child was among Quinn’s victims.

Former Kaleidoscope teacher Sean Charles Quinn was found to have treated children harshly at the Tauranga childcare centre, including grabbing them forcefully and yelling in their faces.

She and her husband – who has cried looking at photos from the time of the Kaleidoscope incidents because he “feels like he’s failed” as a protector – had pulled out old daycare pictures and asked their child if they remembered Quinn, but were told no.

“We didn’t go into too much detail because we didn’t want [our child] reliving it all over again.”

In the tribunal’s report, Quinn was described as grabbing their child by their arms to stand them up before yelling in their face after the child wouldn’t settle in the sleep room.

The child then cried themselves to sleep.

On another occasion, the child was “forcefully” put on the floor by Quinn after throwing food on the floor, the report said.

“This caused [the child] to cry. Mr Quinn picked [the child] up and said words to the effect of, ‘Give me a cuddle, do you want another chance?’”

Sean Charles Quinn initially denied wrongdoing to the NZ Teachers' Disciplinary Tribunal, but later admitted to his actions.

In other incidents, a 4-year-old was chased into a bathroom and held down on a toilet seat, a 23-month-old pulled by the arm on to a mat and a 3-year-old struggling to put his pants on was forced by Quinn to stay in one spot and do it by himself.

Quinn told the “visibly upset” child not to ask another teacher for help, with the same child pulled by his shirt, made to sit in one spot and told “you are not welcome outside” in another incident.

He was “firm but fair”, had never been violent or abusive during his 20-year career, and other teachers were colluding against him, Quinn told a Teaching Council triage committee in November 2023.

But he later admitted to the behaviour, accepting he was responsible for serious misconduct.

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.