Early childhood teacher locked children outside, trapped child in tunnel, threatened to attack colleague

A teacher has been struck off after trapping a child in a mobile tunnel, yelling at children in a sleep room and threatening to assault a colleague. Photo / 123rf

Frustrated with a child’s behaviour, an early childhood teacher placed the boy in an upright mobile tunnel, leaving him trapped as he cried.

The teacher also lifted a child by the arm, threatened to slap another in the face, and locked children outside. All were actions that have lost the woman her teaching registration.

In a decision of the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal released this week, Porirua teacher Tracey Cianna Jane Brown was censured, ordered to pay costs and won’t be able to teach again, after conduct in 2019 and 2020.

According to the tribunal’s decision, Brown first registered as a teacher in 2015, beginning work at Titahi Bay’s All About Children Childcare centre in 2019.

At some point between 2019 and July 2020, Brown placed a child in an upright mobile tunnel. Too small to climb out of the top, the child remained trapped and began screaming. Brown let him out after five minutes.

During the same period, Brown was also asked by a colleague to look at a draft roster. She threw the paper on the ground and walked outside. The colleague followed, and was told by Brown she walked away because she was going to “punch her in the head”.

The colleague told the tribunal the incident left her upset, crying in her car at the end of her shift.

All About Children Childcare in Titahi Bay, Porirua. The centre made a mandatory report to the Teaching Council, as well as conducting an employment investigation into Tracey Brown. Photo / Google Earth

The teacher took misbehaving children by the hand and led them outside, locking the centre’s doors. The exact number of instances was not detailed in the decision.

On one occasion, Brown chased a child who ran outside and shouted at him not to return. She walked inside, slammed the ranch slider, locked the door and walked away.

There were further incidents in the same period, including Brown yelling at another colleague and grabbing another child by the wrist and dragging him outside.

Later in July 2020, two children wouldn’t go to sleep in the sleep room. Brown became angry, raised her voice and threw one of the child’s toys across the room.

As he tried to get up, she grabbed him by the forearm and lifted him 40-50cm off the ground, putting him back on the bed with force as he cried in pain. The tribunal said this incident “arguably amounted to assault” and could have resulted in criminal prosecution.

At the same time as that incident, she told the other child she would like to “slap him in the face” but wasn’t allowed to. The child told her to shut up.

In response to the centre’s own employment investigation, Brown denied that she grabbed or pulled the child’s arm in the sleep room. She also said she put multiple children in the upright tunnel, but either placed a ladder inside or held on to the children’s arms so they could get out.

She initially denied threatening to punch her colleague but accepted the comment could have been made. She later told the tribunal the incident didn’t happen. She did accept she had to work on not yelling at children.

The tribunal ruled the alleged misconduct was proven, and amounted to serious misconduct. The tunnel trapping amounted to “emotional abuse”, the tribunal said.

“The tribunal was troubled by Ms Brown’s failure to provide a statement of reflection, or information that outlined what actions she has taken, if any, and her strategy to prevent her behaviour occurring again,” deputy chairwoman Jo Hughson wrote in her decision.

Brown was censured, had her registration as a teacher cancelled and was ordered to pay $3174 in costs.

She applied to have her name permanently suppressed on health grounds, but the tribunal declined the application. The tribunal allowed publication of the name of the centre.

All About Children’s business manager Manjot Juneja said the company reported the behaviour to the Teaching Council when it became aware of it, and initiated its own employment investigation.

“We do not stand by what the teacher did - we utterly condemn it,” he said.

Ethan Griffiths covers crime and justice stories nationwide for Open Justice. He joined NZME in 2020, previously working as a regional reporter in Whanganui and South Taranaki.