A Queensland teacher who lost his job after defending himself against a violent aboriginal female student after she attacked and racially abused him has had his suspension overturned.
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal last month issued the male teacher, who is in his 50s and cannot be named, with a reprimand but ended his suspension over the incident in the state’s far north in February 2020.
The tribunal heard that the short-term contract mathematics teacher, who had an exemplary teaching record, 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 kicking the 14-year-old Year 9 student.
He told the tribunal that the girl barraged him with racial abuse and threats to kill him when he asked her to leave the classroom for aggressive behaviour, including “foul mouthed racist remarks about his being White, insulting swear words, and statements that her mother was coming to get him and told him to ‘get out of my country'”.
In his oral evidence, he said that after he walked her out of his classroom, she re-entered and came at him in a fighting stance. When he pushed her away she punched him in the jaw and unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks.
During the ensuing struggle both ended up on the concrete outside the classroom, and as he tried to get up she kicked him directly in the testicles, and he kicked her back, making contact with her face.
“I saw her coming and, in a state of desperation, swung my leg soccer style. It would have hit her in the side, but she sped up coming head first, and that is when contact was made,” he said in a March 2022 letter which was similar to his oral testimony.
“The kick was in sheer desperation and the contact to the face was complete misfortune. There was just no alternative, it was like being attacked by a crazed lunatic.
“I have been abused, threatened, kicked, and punched simply for doing my job. I have lost my job, been unemployed for two years, lost my long service leave, and a large proportion of my superannuation simply for defending myself from a violent attack.”
QCAT member Peter Roney KC noted in his judgement that after the incident the student’s mother tried to get her to say that the teacher had racially abused her, but the student did not take her advice.
“At one point [the student’s mother] 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. The student did not adopt any of those suggestions,” he wrote.
The student and her mother did not make a formal complaint to police, the teacher was not charged, police observed the student was showing no signs of injury and Mr Roney said she did not appear to go to hospital afterwards.
Mr Roney also criticised the Queensland College of Teachers, which pursued the disciplinary action, for not calling the student as a witness as she could not be contacted, calling it a “most unsatisfactory state of affairs”.
He ruled the teacher should not be prevented from resuming his career due to the incident, and ruled he did not pose an unacceptable risk of harm to children.
