Kindy ‘toxic’: teacher
A KINDERGARTEN teacher who claims she was stressed after witnessing verbal and physical mistreatment of students, was injured by a student and bullied by other staff will be paid compensation by the Education Department.
The decision of Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal of Tasmania Commissioner Lucinda Wilkins was published this week and found in favour of the teacher who works at Lind isf arne North Primary School.
The commissioner said the teacher made a stress claim on July 22 due to working in a “toxic” workplace, but the Education Department disputed its liability for the claim and it was referred to the tribunal.
The tribunal heard the teacher had provided the department’s human resource management unit with a 24page statement in August about issues at the school.
“It is clear from the statement there was much disruption from about mid-March when the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were being felt at the school, and the wider community generally,” the commissioner wrote.
“Children returned to school on Monday 25 May 2020.
“The worker’s statement describes what appears to be a very unsettled environment. She commented that it felt like the beginning of the year all over again.
“In general, the worker describes regularly being ignored by her work colleagues at a locked door in the mornings, ongoing interpersonal conflict between members of the kindergarten team, being ignored and undermined by the kindergarten teacher assistant and becoming emotional and periodically crying at work from about the time the students returned to school attendance in Term2.”
The worker claimed she had witnessed verbal and physical abuse of students, although the commissioner noted “most of these allegations are serious and, at this stage, untested”.
The written decision noted school principal Shane Oldfield had refuted the allegations about mistreatment of students and said he had “no knowledge of this occurring and at no point in time had the worker or any other member of staff reported students being mistreated by any member of staff”.
It was ultimately found the Education Department had failed to establish there was any factual dispute in relation to any of the claimed causative factors, which would support an argument at a hearing, that the worker’s claim might not succeed.