Special education teacher dismissed for physically abusing 9-year-old student
A teacher physically harmed a child who refused to board the school bus. She dragged him several meters by his backpack straps, causing his clothing to slide down and resulting in injuries. Following criminal proceedings involving community service, a disciplinary tribunal has now ordered her permanent dismissal from the civil service.
The Disciplinary Tribunal for Civil Servants ordered today, Sunday, the immediate dismissal of a special education teacher and her permanent disqualification from the Ministry of Education and the civil service, following her conviction for physically harming a 9-year-old student.
Prior to this dismissal, in criminal proceedings, she was sentenced to four months of imprisonment, which she served as community service, six months of suspended imprisonment for three years, compensation of 7,000 shekels to the student's parents, and a 12-month probation order. The teacher had been employed in the education system since 2009, and the incident occurred in January 2019. The student suffered from attention and behavioral difficulties as well as epilepsy.
The plea bargain she signed with the Disciplinary Division of the Civil Service Commission reveals that after the student refused to go towards the bus waiting at the school entrance, she grabbed his hands firmly and pulled him despite his resistance. After the student sat on the ground, she grabbed the straps of the backpack he was wearing, pulled them hard, and dragged him on his back for a distance of several meters while he was screaming and crying. During the dragging, his pants and underwear slid down, and his exposed buttocks were injured as they rubbed against the courtyard floor. She stopped her actions only after another teacher noticed what was happening and shouted, "What are you doing?".
Following the criminal conviction, the case was brought before the Disciplinary Tribunal, where the parties reached a plea bargain.
"The civil service cannot contain such a breach of trust in it, as a result of the violation of the physical integrity and dignity of a minor, let alone a minor studying in special education," the tribunal ruled. "It is a matter of public trust in general and the parents' public in particular, and within the parents' public, special severity is attached to the breach of trust of parents in special education, who send what is most precious to them to be educated by teaching staff in this framework, and do not expect to receive their child at the end of the school day bruised and injured precisely by their hands."
However, the tribunal took into account the teacher's acceptance of responsibility, the years that have passed since the incident, and the impression that the case did not characterize her conduct throughout her work at the Ministry of Education. In addition, family and health circumstances concerning her daughter were taken into account.
Ultimately, four disciplinary measures were imposed on her: a severe reprimand, immediate dismissal without prejudice to severance pay, permanent disqualification from working at the Ministry of Education, and permanent disqualification from the civil service.
