Teacher censured for pulling preschooler’s ear after he smeared faeces on himself

The 3-year-old boy cried after his ear was pulled by his early childhood education teacher. Photo / 123RF

A teacher grabbed the ear of a preschooler and pulled it, telling the little boy his ears weren’t painted on after the youngster smeared faeces on himself and the bathroom.

However, the Whangārei early childhood education [ECE] teacher has told a disciplinary tribunal she won’t return to teaching.

The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal found the former teacher, who has permanent name suppression, guilty of serious misconduct and penalised her for her actions.

The teacher accepted her actions amounted to serious misconduct but told the tribunal she had no intention of returning to work in early childhood education.

On September 4, 2020, the teacher was working in the “over 2s” section of a Northland childcare centre and was assigned to “toilet the children”.

When the 3-year-old was taken to the toilet by another teacher, he had soiled his “pull-up” nappy and it was in need of changing.

The teacher was changing another child at the time, but according to the agreed summary of facts, the boy was uncooperative and spread “faeces” on himself and the bathroom.

“These are called ears and they aren’t painted on so please use them,” the teacher told the boy as she grabbed his left ear.

“If you used them to listen with, you could have been back outside playing by now.”

A parent of another child witnessed the incident and described the teacher’s tone as a “growling” one, when she reported what she had seen, the next day.

The teacher didn’t show up to her disciplinary meeting or her exit interview at the centre, a decision of the tribunal said, but later admitted she had “tweaked” the child’s left ear, making him cry.

It was then he yelled out “Ow don’t pull my ears,” and “It’s hurting.”

The child’s mother said she couldn’t recall if her son had mentioned anything about the incident when she collected him from the centre that day.

Police were made aware of the conduct by the centre’s manager and after an investigation, gave the teacher a formal warning for her actions.

The teacher said she wasn’t feeling well that day and was suffering from a toothache and earache and was feeling anxious. She had visited the doctor earlier in the morning and later collected antibiotics.

The Complaints Assessment Committee, who brought the charge against the teacher, submitted her conduct was serious and reflected poorly on the women’s fitness to work as an ECE teacher.

The teacher said her actions were out of character, which the committee agreed with, but it still believed her actions met the threshold for serious misconduct.

Despite the woman telling the tribunal she didn’t intend on returning to work as an ECE teacher, she was still penalised.

An annotation was to be put on the teacher’s registration for two years, conditions were imposed on her teaching certificate and she was censured for her actions.