Sacked Sydney school teacher fights for justice over ‘unstructured scattergun’ of abuse allegations

Award-winning special needs teacher Vita Williams spent more than three years on the Department of Education’s secret list of unemployable educators. She was sacked, and her school ‘lost its soul’. Now, after a win in court, she’s demanding justice.

A teacher’s fight to clear her name has racked up legal fees of $1 million. File picture: Glenn Campbell

An award-winning ex-special needs teacher who was sacked from her Sydney school has called on the Department of Education to punish staff who make vexatious complaints about their colleagues, describing its internal investigations as unjust after her vindication in court.

Former assistant principal Vita Williams was left with her reputation in tatters when she was fired from the school where she taught children with disabilities in 2020, after an investigation by the Department’s internal Professional and Ethical Standards (PES) unit upheld allegations she physically harmed students.

Neither the school nor students can be identified for legal reasons.

Mrs Williams has consistently and vehemently denied the claims, in which she allegedly twisted the wrist of one child and slapped the face of another, which were lodged against her years after the events were alleged to have occurred and resulted in her being added to the Department’s “Not to Be Employed” list.

The former educator, who in 2018 won a Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, took her fight to the Industrial Relations Commission and won, with Commissioner Janine Webster finding the “conduct alleged against the appellant in respect of the allegations is insufficient to prove that it occurred” and ordering she be reinstated.

Vita Williams and her husband John Williams say the Department of Education’s investigative processes are needlessly cruel and inconsistent. Picture: Tim Hunter

In January 2019, Mrs Williams was informed that she was under investigation over “unnecessary and excessive physical contact with support students” but was not given any specifics about those allegations for a full 12 months, during which time Mrs Williams developed severe anxiety and major depressive disorder.

Now she and her husband John are demanding an apology from the Department, a meeting with current Education Minister Prue Car, and assurances this will “never happen to another teacher again”.

“It destroyed me,” she said.

“I wasn’t allowed to go to John’s side of the family (for) family functions for a whole year – that’s how isolating it was – because the director told me that I couldn’t speak to anyone who was related in a teaching position, or had connections with the school.

“I was totally isolated. I became housebound. I wouldn’t go out alone, and … I made sure when I went into the shops I made sure that I was within a video, so I couldn’t be accused of anything.”

Spending 12 months under investigation over unknown allegations “destroyed” Vita. Picture: Tim Hunter

Vita Williams was a decorated special needs teacher before she was sacked, winning a ministerial merit award in 2018.

Several members of the school’s leadership team were also subject to similar allegations and other misconduct claims, with the Commissioner describing the complaint as an “unstructured scattergun of serious allegations … which often lacked particulars”, but The Sunday Telegraph understands none – other than Mrs Williams – were sacked or placed on the Not to Be Employed list.

“There needs to be accountability for people who lie and make vexatious allegations – (the Department) need to follow their own policy, and sack and prosecute them,” Mrs Williams said.

The cost of clearing Vita’s name is now in excess of $1 million by the couple’s estimate, with Mrs Williams forced to sell her home to continue paying legal fees.

Retired speech pathologist Ylana Bloom, who gave evidence to the IRC, had worked with Mrs Williams on a ‘communication passport’ project which would later be implemented department-wide as the “Passport for Learning”.

“Nefarious actors” had “tried to sabotage it at every turn”, the 72-year-old said.

“It was very, very evil, what happened at that school.”

A former member of the P&C executive told The Sunday Telegraph Mrs Williams’ sacking was “a massive loss to special education”, and the school “lost its soul” when she left.

The allegations, she and other parents thought, “cannot possibly be true”; “she took the students other teachers didn’t want to teach”.

Education Minister Prue Car declined to meet with Vita and John in person, but offered to have a member of her staff meet with Mrs Williams.

Education Minister Prue Car speaking during NSW Parliament’s Question Time. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Recommendations made by former NSW Deputy Ombudsman Chris Wheeler in a recent internal review of the PES directorate, which found investigators’ caseloads remain above the recommended level, “have been accepted and are being implemented,” she said.

“The Department of Education does not hesitate to take action against employees in the event of misconduct to protect children,” Ms Car said.

“The safety of students and young people is always the priority when dealing with allegations of misconduct made against school staff.”

The Department confirmed Mrs Williams was removed from the NTBE list on 26 April 2023, twelve days after the IRC decision.

“PES has an obligation to investigate employee actions if those allegations amount to misconduct, regardless of the timeframe in which we receive them,” a spokeswoman said.

A 2019 review of PES, previously named Employee Performance and Conduct (EPAC), found the unit was “seriously under-resourced” with its 45 total employees.

Today, the unit has 66 investigators with a number of those positions under recruitment, however the Department declined to confirm how many in total are vacant.

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Originally published as Sacked Sydney school teacher fights for justice over ‘unstructured scattergun’ of abuse allegations