Teacher with IBS due to parent-teacher night stress loses compo fight

Brisbane primary school teacher who said her job caused her irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression has failed to get workers compensation payments.

The Brisbane teacher failed in her work compo bid.

A Brisbane primary school teacher who claims the stress of parent teacher night, naughty six year olds and a lack of support caused her irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression has failed in her bid to get workers compensation payments.

Laura Stable applied for compensation with WorkCover on April 12, 2021 for her diagnosed adjustment disorder due to anxiety and depression caused by a group of three misbehaving students in her 2021 class of six or seven years olds at a school south of Brisbane.

On the same day she applied for WorkCover her doctor issued her a certificate diagnosing her with “stress induced” irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety and depression.

She had only been working at the school since 2020.

According to details revealed in a decision handed down by Queensland Industrial Relations Commission Commissioner Jacqueline Power on November 26, Ms Stable told her psychiatrist in March 2021 that she could not cope with her job and had been crying every night while debriefing with her husband.

Laura Stable failed in her work compo bid.

She earlier told her doctor she was grinding her teeth at night, the decision states.

Ms Stable claimed there were 65 “stressors” in her job including that parent teacher interviews were stressful because she “felt like a failure as a teacher during” them “because she had to tell multiple parents that they were going to have to focus on particular things and had to say placating things to parents”.

“There was no evidence that parents complained or took issue with the appellant’s performance,” Ms Power ruled.

Ms Stable complained to principal Deborah Hansen that “she was starting to feel that the job was not worth her life” and she did felt unsupported, especially with the three students with behavioural issues and prior misconduct.

Ms Hansen reportedly replied with how Ms Stable was doing a great job “amongst a series of platitudes”, Ms Stable told the tribunal.

She told the tribunal that she would regularly tell Ms Hansen and the deputy principal Kelly Uittenbosch in casual conversations about the difficulties she was having in her classroom and they would just reassure her with praise.

Laura Stable claimed stress caused her issues.

“I’m like … I don’t want praise, like, I need help,” Ms Stable told the tribunal.

Ms Stable told the tribunal that after she told Ms Hansen how poorly the students were doing and how this must reflect on her as a teacher, Ms Hansen replied: “we can only do what we can do” and Ms Stable should lower her expectations and in effect stop being a perfectionist.

In later evidence Ms Hansen told the tribunal that Ms Stable was a “good and dedicated teacher”.

Ms Power ruled that Ms Stable cannot claim workers compensation payments for her psychological injury because it was caused by “reasonable management action” by the school.

“If it were not for the existence of stressors arising out of management action, the injury would be one for acceptance,” Ms Power stated in her decision.

The Workers’ Compensation Regulator submitted that her injury was not compensatable.

Ms Power stated that Ms Stable presented in the tribunal as a dedicated teacher who was

committed to advocating for her students.

One of the three troublesome students was described in Education Department documents as “unsafe for himself and others” including spitting at people and on the floor, throwing objects, running around the room, flips upside down when on the carpet and knocks into peers as he moves about the classroom.

Two of the kids in her class were suspended from school, the tribunal heard.

Ms Power concluded that evidence does not support a finding that the decision to allocate the three misbehaving students in Ms Stable’s class was unreasonable and that the evidence did not support a finding that insufficient classroom support was given.

Originally published as Teacher with IBS due to parent-teacher night stress loses compo fight