Teacher who suffered psychotic breaks awarded compensation after employment tribunal rules her class was responsible for her mental illness

A PRIMARY schoolteacher suffering psychotic hallucinations and desperate for the Rapture to occur was allowed back into her classroom less than two weeks after being discharged from a mental health facility — she’s now won compo from the Education Department.

A PRIMARY schoolteacher who was suffering psychotic hallucinations and desperate for the Rapture to occur was allowed to return to the classroom less than two weeks after being discharged from a mental health facility.

The teacher has now won compensation after the Employment Tribunal found working in a classroom with students who threatened to kill her and each other was the main cause of her mental illness.

Lawyers for the Education Department unsuccessfully argued that her adjustment disorder, which followed the psychotic episode, was caused by external factors in her life.

The teacher, 45, began teaching in 1997 and in 2008 was teaching at a school in Adelaide’s southern suburbs.

In June 2013, she started suffering delusions and hallucinations in the classroom, believing her students were exposed to incest.

While driving with her husband she put her hand on the door handle as though she was going to throw herself from the moving car.

She voluntarily entered the Margaret Tobin Centre, a mental health inpatient facility at the Flinders Medical Centre, on advice from her doctor.

The teacher was diagnosed with psychosis with manic features and was discharged after being prescribed medication on July 5, 2013.

Two weeks later, on July 22 she returned to teaching drama. Shortly afterwards she requested a transfer back to the classroom.

In 2017, the number of students with “complexities” in her class increased, including more students with anger-management issues, autism spectrum disorder and a history of sexual or physical abuse.

The teacher was forced to lock her class in their classroom to keep them safe from children banging chairs against windows and up-ending furniture.

In March that year a student threatened to kill another student as well as the teacher.

She readmitted herself to the mental health facility and started talking about “the Rapture”, a Biblical term that describes when Christians are taken up into heaven before the judgement of the world.

The Employment Tribunal heard that the teacher had become a born-again Christian in 2013 and focused on the Rapture and end of days because she was at “absolute rock-bottom”.

Several doctors gave testimony before the Tribunal, attesting that the teacher had suffered a psychotic episode in 2013 and “her ability to test reality had become impaired”.

Tribunal deputy president Mark Calligeros said it was not surprising the teacher’s mental health declined so sharply.

“The psychotic episode and the injury were not just the result of stress due to difficulty managing the classroom and dealing with aberrant student behaviour,” Mr Calligeros said.

“(Her) self-worth and self-respect became severely compromised because she felt she was doing her job poorly.”

An Education Department spokeswoman could not comment on specific cases but said the department had a comprehensive return-to-work policy.