A teacher pushed a young toddler off a 90-centimetre-tall climbing box onto a cushion to demonstrate "how it feels" to push others, a disciplinary tribunal has found.
Gail de Malmanche was working as a reliever at a private early childhood centre in Palmerston North when the incident occurred in September 2020.
The New Zealand Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal found de Malmanche guilty of serious misconduct, censured her, and ordered a 6-month annotation of her teaching register.
According to the tribunal's decision, the child, aged between 2 and 5 years old, was upset for some time after the push and repeatedly reported having a sore back. The child did not sustain any visible injuries.
When another teacher returned outside to find the toddler crying, de Malmanche interrupted and said, "He is crying because I pushed him off the box, I thought he would like it but he didn't and is crying but I have said sorry."
