Teacher traumatised by knife-wielding student sues for $750k

A Queensland teacher who sued the state for $750,000 claiming she was left traumatised after her calls for a school lockdown were ignored when a student produced a knife has dropped her case.

Michelle Bordonaro, 55, sued the state in the District Court in Cairns.

A Queensland special education teacher who sued the state for $750,000 claiming she was left traumatised after a student “dragged a steak knife across his arm” while yelling how he hated everyone, has dropped her case.

Michelle Bordonaro, 55, sued the state in the District Court in Cairns, alleging she has post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by her exposure to “intense fear, helplessness or horror” during a delayed school lockdown five years ago.

In her claim filed in court last year Ms Bordonaro alleged she felt a “loss of control” at Trinity Bay State High School on August 30, 2018 after her attempts to get school staff to put the school into lockdown were rebuffed.

Trinity Bay High School Picture: Brian Cassey

Ms Bordonaro states in her claim that she believed the lockdown was necessary because a student had “pulled out a steak knife” in front of her and yelled: “I hate everything about this school and I hate everyone and I am going to kill myself”.

She alleges she unsuccessfully tried call the school’s lockdown delegates to activate a lockdown, as the student walked around the school with a knife.

“Student H had a knife in his bag and was making threats to self-harm and harm others,” the claim states.

The office receptionist is alleged to have told Ms Bordonaro that he was not authorised to put the school into lockdown, and this was only something the principal could do.

Ms Bordonaro also alleges she asked deputy principal Bruce Paris to put the school in lockdown and he told her “he did not want to put the school into lockdown as this would cause too much paperwork for the district office”, a claim which the state denies.

She also alleged that the behaviour management teacher, Scott Graham, told her that there would be at least 20 kids at school with knives in their bags.

She claims that later, only after police were called, police insisted the school be put in lockdown, and they found a knife in the student’s bag.

But in its defence, the state government denied the student “dragged the knife across his arm” and instead alleged the student “made a cutting motion across his arm with the knife only” but did not make contact with his arm or cut himself.

Trinity Bay High School Picture: Brian Cassey

The state also says in its defence that the student never threatened to cut any other person, and it says that while school secretary Lisa Sheahan initially struggled to contact school staff on the lockdown delegates list, she was ultimately successful in contacting someone.

There were eight lockdown delegates comprising four deputy principals, the principal, the school-based police officer, the junior school head of department or the business services manager, the claim states.

The state alleges the student calmly gave the knife to police without resistance and he had been sitting calmly in an area of the school when Mr Paris and school-based police officer Cherie Giles converged on him.

The state conceded in its defence that Ms Bordonaro developed “mild PTSD” in late 2018 or early 2019 but denied it was caused by the lockdown event.

It argued it was actually caused by a combination her failure to get a promotion at work in 2018, her long-term difficult domestic relationship, as well as the knife incident.

After the lockdown, Ms Bordonaro quit her job at Trinity Bay and accepted a position at Cairns State High School, court documents state.

Last month, just days before the case was due to go to trial, Ms Bordonaro dropped her claim, filing a notice of discontinuance in court.

She was claiming $750,000 in damages including $552,873 for future economic loss, as her income would have been $1650 per week had she not suffered PTSD.