Kindy teacher pulled up over ‘abuse’ of children

A Hawke’s Bay early childhood teacher’s registration has been cancelled for serious misconduct, including behaviour that amounted to ‘‘abuse’’ of children.

Laura Hope Tregurtha, a registered teacher, of Napier, taught between July 2016 and March 2017 at a Havelock North kindergarten. During that time, she was found to have failed to ensure the physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing of children in her care.

The Education Council referred Tregurtha to the NZ Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal on a charge of serious misconduct. The tribunal heard Tregurtha regularly used force to prevent children aged between 2 and 4 years old from moving during nap time and mat time.

There were three children who she did this to during nap time and four at mat time.

At nap time, when children were unsettled, Tregurtha would lay them on their stomachs with their faces to the side.

She then forcefully held them in that position by holding the children’s hands behind their backs and using her forearm and elbow to push them down between their shoulder blades, for periods of up to 30 minutes or until the children fell asleep.

When Tregurtha did this, the children would resist, show signs of distress, and cry. She also sometimes pressed down on their legs with her foot or leg.

Tregurtha’s repeated use of force to ‘‘correct’’ children’s behaviour formed a pattern of actions ‘‘amounting to physical abuse’’, the tribunal stated in a ruling.

Tregurtha admitted that when children were struggling to sleep, she would hold their hands ‘‘lightly’’ behind their backs, and said she learnt this technique from another teacher.

Another matter included making a child stay at the food table for about 40 minutes, as Tregurtha ‘‘wanted him to say ‘please’ before excusing him’’, and refusing to give him his dummy when he became upset. ‘‘I don’t recall when it became best practice to give a child exactly what they wanted when they were having a tantrum,’’ she told the tribunal.

Another incident resulted in a child banging her chin on a shelf, causing a cut to the child’s lip, which ‘‘puffed up and bled’’.

Following her resignation in April 2017, police gave Tregurtha a warning as her behaviour was considered ‘‘assault’’ on a child.

The tribunal said Tregurtha lacked insight into the seriousness of her conduct.