‘I’ll f**king kill you’: Female student kicked teacher in testicles

A Queensland teacher who kicked a female student in the face after she kicked him in the testicles and racially abused him has been given the green light to return to the classroom.

A teacher who kicked a student in the face is able to return to teaching, should he want to.

A Far North Queensland teacher who kicked a female student in the face after she kicked him in the testicles and racially abused him during class including telling him to “get out of my country” has been given the green light to return to the classroom.

The maths teacher, whose identity has been suppressed but who is aged in his mid-50s, was reprimanded for his actions in class on February 3, 2020 after a disciplinary hearing in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in Cairns.

In his decision handed down on January 17 and published last Friday QCAT member Peter Roney KC ruled that the teacher was the victim of “severe provocation, verbal and racial abuse, insults and threats of physical violence as well as significant actual violence perpetrated on him” before he kicked the 14-year-old ninth grade student.

“Sir you breath stinks” the girl yelled at him and she called him The Lorax, a character from a Dr Seuss book, “because he kept yelling at her”.

The teacher, who had a faultless history, claimed she told him: “you can’t tell me what to do you Lorax looking motherf**ker” after he asked the girl to go to a class next door.

“She came up to me and yelled in my face and threatened me “I will f**king kill you” followed by many swear words,” the teacher recounted of the event, the QCAT decision states.

He claimed the student made foul mouthed racist remarks about his being white, insulting swear words, and told him that her mother was coming to get him.

“I will roll you in the carpark, we will f**k you, get out of my country,” she told him.

He claimed she punched him, landing a “haymaker” punch on his right jaw, then he “dropped her to the ground and told her to stop.”

It turned into a “fully blown fight” and she clearly knew how to fight, the teacher told the tribunal.

He alleged she then “up-kicked me flush in the testicles, I kicked her back as the only way to get away and finish the situation” by swinging his “leg soccer style”.

He did not intend to kick her in some other part of her body, not her face.

Another teacher who witnessed the fight told the tribunal she thought it was “some kind of karate presentation” as for two minutes “both were on the ground … punching each other” on concrete outside of the classroom.

Afterwards the student started crying and said she was going to call the police and she thought her fingers were broken, a witness told the tribunal.

The fight began when she had not brought books or pencils to the class, which the student claimed was “due to some family problem”, which she did not explain.

Mr Roney ruled that the teacher “should not be prevented from resuming his teaching career should he choose to do so” after his nearly five-year suspension from teaching.

Mr Roney ruled that the teacher did not pose an unacceptable risk of harm to children.

The father of five was employed on a temporary contract at the time he was kicked by the student.

He told the tribunal he had been taught to move with the troublemaking student to get them out of the classroom.

Mr Roney noted that during the police interview the student’s mother “clearly at one point invited the student to accept that the teacher directed serious racial insults at her”.

“At one point she was seeking to coach her daughter to say that the teacher had called her disgraceful racist and sexist names and used the particular words he is supposed to have used and suggesting what she should say were the words used,” he states.

“To her credit, the student declined to adopt that suggestion,” Mr Roney noted.

Mr Roney stated that the mother was trying to take an “active role in developing the narrative around what had happened and seeking to have a say in what happened and how serious it was”.

The student and her mother made no formal complaint to the police, and no charges were laid against the teacher.

A “child harm referral report” was made to police.

Police observed that the student was showing no signs injury and Mr Roney noted it appeared the student did not go to hospital to complain of any injury.

“Although there is some suggestion that she said she had a sore jaw,” he stated.

The student was not called as a witness by the Queensland College of Teachers which prosecuted the disciplinary action, purportedly because the QCT could not get in touch with her.

Mr Roney criticised this as “a most unsatisfactory state of affairs”.

The teacher had never taught the girl before but later realised she had made racist comments to him in the library at an earlier time.

The teacher was remorseful and said he had lost his job, been unemployed for two years, lost his long service leave, and a slice of his superannuation “simply for defending myself from a violent attack”.

READ THE TEACHERS FULL STATEMENT.

“I was teaching the class normally and was moving around the room, making sure students were on task. I repeatedly had to return to one student that was not co-operating at all. Each time I asked her to do her work she would mutter under her breath something rude like “go away” or “don’t tell me what to do”. Her friend would say to her don’t do that. I ignored the behaviour, hoping she would take her friend’s advice.” “Her behaviour got worse and worse, and she was starting to yell out and disturb others. I then asked her to go to a buddy class next door. At this point she got very angry and swore at me many times including “f**k you c**t”, “you can’t tell me what to do you Lorax looking motherf**ker” and many more I can’t recall. At this point I just asked her to leave the room. She came up to me and yelled in my face and threatened me “I will f**king kill you” followed by many swear words. I yelled back at her she would have to leave and walked her to the door and she left and I closed the door after telling her to go to the office.

“She then came back at me punching me twice in the face and many other blows. I pushed her strongly away and she came back to attach again. restrained her arms and dropped her to the ground and told her to stop.” “At this point, (the student) went wild, kicking and punching from every angle. I took many blows, but when she up-kicked me flush in the testicles, I kicked her back as the only way to get away and finish the situation. Two other teachers/staff had arrived at this time (unknown). The student left, and I went back to teach the class. I was talking to staff outside when she returned again, pushed past me and another staff member saying, “I’m going to smash that f**king laptop”. I took the laptop away from her at which point she said, “I’m going to get my mother and she is going to f**k you up!”

READ THE STUDENTS ORAL VERSION OF INCIDENT SHE GAVE TO A TEACHER

“I was talking to (a certain other student) and I didn’t have a book or pen, I got a warning from Sir, Then I called him The Lorax. I got another warning. Then he asked me to move and I didn’t want to. Then he asked me to go outside. I started to go then went back to check the time on his laptop. He came and stood in front of me and had his face close to my face. He started pushing me with his hands on my shoulders. He said “you’re a silly little girl”, I said “I’m taller than you” He started yelling and using swear words, I said ‘your breath stinks”. Then I walked out to go to the office, I decided to go back and get my phone. I knocked on the door and opened it. He stood in the doorway and pushed me on the chest. I said “Sir, I want to get my phone”. He pushed me and I pushed him back. He punched me on the jaw and I hit him back.

Then he punched me on the lip and pushed me to the ground. I hit my head on the concrete. He kicked me in the face when I tried to get up and kept trying to hit me. I tried kicking him to get him away. He stopped when a teacher came over.

(When later she spoke to police, the student accepted she was the first one to make physical contact with the teacher and she said she “kicked him in the nuts” to get him to stop)