Fake guns, threats and violence in the classroom behind teacher’s claims for psychiatric harm

Imitation guns, threats to kill and protecting children from students hell bent on causing harm are among the incidents breaking our teachers.

Imitation guns in the classroom, threats to kill and having to physically protect students from other children hell bent on causing destruction are among the myriad reasons teachers have suffered psychological damages at work.

A review of South Australian Employment Tribunal judgments reveals only the tip of the iceberg of a profession where school lockdowns and violence can be common place.

In November 2018, the Tribunal found that a southern suburbs teacher’s nervous breakdown, which included an attempt to throw herself from a moving car, was the result of teaching conditions in the classroom.

“(The teacher) said that the number of students in her class with “complexities” increased significantly in 2017,” the Tribunal concluded.

“She explained that in 2017 she had to deal with more students with anger management issues, one of her students had a history of sexual abuse and rolled around on the floor during most classes and another student had autism spectrum disorder and was particularly difficult to manage.”

The teacher gave detailed testimony about an incident in February and March 2017 which left her struggling to sleep.

“A student she referred to as student A was banging chairs on a window outside classroom and up-ending furniture and (the teacher) had to lock the door to keep him out and keep other students safe from him,” the Tribunal said.

“On 1 March 2017 student A was chasing fellow students and shoving and kicking them. This caused student B to tell (the teacher) he was going to kill student A. When she tried to calm student B he said to her “do the whole class a favour and die”.”

Despite the Tribunal finding that the classroom was a significant contributing cause to the woman’s psychotic episode, the then Liberal Government appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the appeal, paving the way for expanded rights for injured workers.

In a separate judgment, a southern suburbs high school teacher suffered a nervous breakdown after a student brandished an imitation firearm and fired it in the classroom.

The teacher was not aware the firearm was imitation.

The judgments published by the Tribunal do not cover all issues of psychiatric damage in the classroom.

Other claims for compensation are approved by the Education Department without reaching the tribunal.

In 2021, a freedom of information request revealed that 86 parents had been bared from SA schools for offences ranging from assaulting staff to threatening to kill a preschooler and promising to blow up the school.