'I never imagined my daughter's biggest bully would be her teacher'

"I've told her that I know how the teacher's treated you and it's not okay - we don't treat people like that."

A Queensland mum has been left shocked after catching her daughter’s teacher berating her on a secret recording.

Demi Saint suspected her five-year-old daughter Eadie was being bullied when she noticed a change in her behaviour.

A Current Affair reports the mum, whose kids go to Torbanlea State School, put a secret recording device in Eadie’s hair-tie to try to weed out the culprit.

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“It’s a fight to get her to school,” she told ACA. “She just doesn’t want to go.

“She’s emotionally withdrawn, and she doesn’t want to talk about anything.

“She came home very distressed, shaking and crying about an incident at school.

“It made me realise there was something going on.”

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Demi Saint with her daughter Edie. Picture: ACA

"We felt like something was going on"

Demi originally feared her daughter was the target of a schoolyard bully, so she emailed the school to request a meeting, and even booked paediatric appointments to search for an answer.

However, she told ACA she felt like no one was listening.

“It was the end of the line, but what could we do? We felt like something was going on,” she said.

“I bought this recording device online and sewed her a Christmas scrunchie and popped it inside with a zip to tie her hair up.”

Eadie had no idea the recording device was in her scrunchie that day, and Demi had hours of recordings to sift through when she returned home.

"Unfortunately, Eadie, you lie all the time through your face. Lies, kicking, disrespect, defiance and harassment," the female teacher can be heard saying to Eadie.

"You kick people out in the street, what happens to you?" she asks another student.

"Um, you get arrested" the other child replies.

"So do you want that?" the teacher asked Eadie.

"Would you like to spend your time when you're 10 years old kicking people and getting picked up.

"Apologise now and think about seriously the amount of stuff I have to do now to say you kicked (another child) for no reason."

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Demi has called for her daughter's teacher to be sacked. Picture: ACA

"I would say that's verbal abuse"

Demi told ACA she knew nothing about the supposed kicking incident.

“I asked the school about it, but no one phoned me that day,” she said.

“The comment that really upset me the most was ‘you lie from your face’. I would say that’s verbal abuse. She’s only five.”

In the recording, the teacher can be heard yelling before another prep student then asked, "Miss ... are you feeling okay?"

She responds: "No. It's really frustrating when I come back from not even a lunch break, which I still have 10 minutes on my break to eat my food, to find out that you're kicking people."

Also in the recording, the teacher berates Eadie for taking two days off school.

"It's because if you have days off, you don't do this craft," the teacher said.

"If you haven't done it, it's at the point where I can't catch you up anymore.

"If you haven't done them, it's because you're not here."

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Eadie's bully was revealed by a secret recording item in her hair tie. Picture: Supplied

"We don't treat people like that"

Demi told ACA Eadie took two days off because her grandmother passed away, and the teacher was aware of that fact.

"I've told her (Eadie) that I know how the teacher's treated you and it's not okay - we don't treat people like that," Demi said.

The mother-of-two has now pulled both of her children out of the school, and is calling for the teacher in question to be sacked.

In a statement to ACA, the Queensland Department of Education said its highest priority was the safety and wellbeing of students.

“The department expects all employees to act appropriately and with exemplary ethical standards, and takes action when these expectations are not met,” a spokesperson said.

The department is aware of a recent allegation made against a staff member of a state school.

Allegations against staff are dealt with in accordance with departmental guidelines.

The department is unable to provide further information for privacy reasons."

Originally published as 'I never imagined my daughter's biggest bully would be her teacher'