A first-year teacher elbowed and slapped an 8-year-old student with behaviour challenges after the student threw yoghurt over her. 

It was an action that landed the woman in the Teachers’ Disciplinary Tribunal, facing charges of serious misconduct for using excessive force on the child. 

According to the agreed summary of facts tabled at a tribunal hearing earlier this year, the woman, who has name suppression, was in her first fulltime teaching role. 

The tribunal’s decision, publicly released yesterday, stated that at lunchtime, several students had started throwing spoons at other children, and the teacher intervened, asking one boy to come with her. 

He refused and held a yoghurt pot towards her, preparing to throw it. The teacher warned him not to, and said, “just you try”. 

The boy threw it, and the yoghurt landed on the teacher. 

She then raised her hand towards the student’s cheek, but did not make contact, before pulling him up by his hand and dragging him towards the principal’s office. 

The student swore at her as she continued dragging him to the office. 

Outside the reception, the student was agitated and tried to pull away, but was held firmly by the wrist, with the teacher “roughly” moving him around, according to the summary. 

When the student tried to wriggle free, the teacher elbowed him in the side of the head. The student responded by striking the teacher in the face. She then let go of the boy’s wrist and slapped his face. 

The student then ran into the office and dove under a desk, crying loudly, yelling and swearing at the teacher. 

“Both were visibly distressed and covered in yoghurt,” the summary stated. 

After the incident, the teacher told a senior colleague that she’d struck the student but had felt panicked, unsafe and scared for the other children. 

She was a first-year teacher, had little training and support and was under personal and professional stress. 

Closed-circuit television captured the yoghurt-throwing incident and the teacher raising her hand, but the events inside the principal’s office were not captured. 

The school investigated in the weeks following the incident, and the teacher was issued a final written warning. 

‘I’m truly sorry for any pain I caused’ 

In submissions to the tribunal, the teacher said she deeply regretted her actions and apologised to the student, as well as other children who witnessed the incident. 

“I realise that my actions were hurtful, not right, and I’m truly sorry for any pain I caused,” she said. 

“I am committed to reflecting on this and making sure I approach every child with the kindness, respect and understanding they deserve.” 

The woman said she wasn’t aware the student had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), that she lacked classroom experience, and felt that she had minimal mentor support or orientation in her first year. 

The teacher’s legal representative from NZEI, Janette Brown, told the tribunal that her client accepted she’d failed to de-escalate the situation or seek help, and that she had misused force on a learner. 

Since the incident, the teacher has gained more experience in the profession and is now working with children with challenging behaviours. 

A complaints assessment committee of the Teachers Council laid charges of serious misconduct against the teacher, and said in submissions to the tribunal that any use of force by an educator must be proportional. 

“In a similar vein, the CAC submits that striking and restraining a student is likely to bring the profession into disrepute, and that teachers are expected to self-regulate their frustration and anger when dealing with challenging behaviour by a student,” their submissions read. 

The tribunal said that the legislation was clear that physical restraint could only be used to stop a student from causing imminent harm to themselves or others. 

“The tribunal agrees that the respondent’s interactions with [the student] amount to serious misconduct,” the tribunal said. 

“The tribunal considers that the respondent’s conduct was serious and demonstrated a poor and harmful response to difficult behaviour.” 

The tribunal found the woman had used excessive force in restraining the child. 

It censured her and ordered a note to be added to her registration and that she must disclose the tribunal’s decision to any future employer for one year. 

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.