It was then that Noronha marched him to the bathroom, squirted liquid hand soap into the boy's mouth, and told him if he were to do it again, she would put more soap in his mouth.
"That's what you get for hitting a teacher in the face," she told him.
A teacher aide witnessed the soap discipline and Noronha said words to the effect she was teaching the boy a lesson.
In explanation during an investigation against her, Noronha said she lost control in the heat of the moment after being slapped.
She had been hit many times by the student in the preceding five months, but had handled those incidents professionally.
Noronha received a police warning but was not charged.
By agreement, she resigned from the school and began relieving at her former school in Dunedin.
During cross-examination at the tribunal hearing, Noronha admitted she had described the boy as "feral", and she had struggled with his behaviour from the beginning. She felt the student was a safety hazard and should be removed from the class until his behaviour changed.
She denied her relationship with the boy was negative, and stood by her actions of hitting the boy's head to get the counters out of his mouth, though she said it was only "tapping".
"I did the best I could," she said during the hearing. "He is still breathing, still alive to this day because of what I did."
She believed she would have been guilty of manslaughter if she had not acted and the boy had choked.
Noronha felt extra anxiety about the situation as she had had to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on a choking child earlier in the year.
The tribunal did not accept Noronha's actions against the boy were necessary or that they were motivated by fear for his safety.
It censured Noronha and cancelled her registration, and ordered her to pay 50 per cent of costs.
Teacher's inappropriate advances on junior colleague
A teacher at Howick College who was supposed to be mentoring a junior colleague repeatedly begged her to go out with him - and it's not the first inappropriate incident at the school.
In 2010 Jagindar Singh allegedly made inappropriate comments to a female student, including using the words "boobs" and "stripper". He denied saying the words but agreed his conduct was inappropriate.
In 2011 he swore at a student, and later that year said to a female staff member "are you looking for a new husband" and "do you like this f***ing".
The incident brought before the Tribunal happened in February this year, when he propositioned a junior teacher, intending to start a relationship. Singh told her "you can't say anything" and "doesn't matter, no one has to know".
He also said "you know just because you say no doesn't mean I'll stop asking" and "would you do it if I begged?"
A week later he made further comments and advances during a mentoring session with her. She complained to the principal.
Singh has since resigned from the school.
The Tribunal did not believe Singh's most recent comments could be labelled sexual harassment, and suggested it was "a somewhat desperate, and perhaps pathetic attempt to ask the teacher out".
The Tribunal ordered he complete a professional development course to focus on workplace relationships, and not engage in any mentoring or supervision for three years. They also ordered him to pay half of the case costs.
Confidential info downloaded to school laptop
A teacher downloaded confidential assessment information to her school laptop, which her Year 11 daughter had access to, then damaged the device to keep from being caught.
Assessment information on subjects the teacher's daughter was studying were downloaded onto the laptop and discovered by an IT worker in 2015, but not before the teacher damaged the laptop with steam and deleted the files.
The IT worker was able to access the information through a backup.
The Tribunal censured the teacher and ordered her to pay 40 per cent of costs.
The teacher earlier offered to pay $700 to the school for damage to the laptop and tendered her resignation.
