Teacher to challenge suspension in court

The teacher, who lives in Point Fortin, said it was her dream to become a teacher and was shocked and horrified by the incident which took place on the school’s compound on September 23, 2014.

She said she was even more astonished when she was suspended one month later.

The teacher, who is now pursuing her Masters in Education, is challenging the decision of the TSC to suspend her and is asking that the court declares the action illegal and unreasonable.

She is also asking that the court permanently stays the disciplinary proceedings against her since two years and five months have since elapsed from the time the allegation of misconduct was made against her. She was accused of assaulting the student whom she said grabbed her buttocks while she was speaking to two students in a corridor of the school.

She was yesterday granted leave by Justice Ricky Rahim to challenge the TSC’s decision.

According to her lawsuit, she was having a conversation with two of her form three students when another student, whom she did not know, grabbed her buttocks.

“I was shocked, surprised, annoyed but most of all embarrassed when this occurred,” she said in her affidavit filed in support of her leave application.

“I considered that this act by the student was highly disrespectful behaviour that should not be tolerated and should not go unpunished as it was clearly an attack upon the opposite sex,” she added.

She said she later went to the student’s class and asked why he grabbed her buttocks.

“The student attempted to walk off as I spoke to him and I grabbed his shirt as he was attempting to walk off and asked him why did he grab my buttocks.

I asked him if he had no behaviour and no respect for his elders and women and if this was how he intended to treat women when he was an adult.

He said that he was sorry for what he had done but he was playing a prank that his friends had encouraged him to do. I asked him whether he would do that to his mother or sister and he did not answer,” she said.

The teacher said she lost out on an opportunity to be promoted to the position of Teacher III and a salary increase of more than $5,000 dollars.

She said she reported the matter to the police two days after the incident the most shocking day of her working career came when she was given her suspension letter and escorted off the school’s compound in full view of the student population.

“This was the most depressing day of my working career. I could not understand how anyone could make an allegation of misconduct having regard to what transpired on that day,” she said.

She said it was only in March of this year that she was asked to submit a statement in response to the allegations of several breaches of the Teaching Service Regulations.

She said because of the passage of time she has been unable to get in contact with the two students from whom she had received written statements.

“This entire ordeal has been very stressful, humiliating and depressing to me,” she said.

She also added that the suspension was a stain on her professional career and has stunted her career development.

She being is represented by attorney Gerald Ramdeen.