Following complaints made by the mother of an autistic child that teachers attached to the David Rose Special School intentionally burnt her child’s hand, a probe subsequently carried out by the Ministry of Education has found that the incident was accidental.
“The incident with the glue gun was an accident and not as a result of any deliberate wrongdoing of the teacher. The teachers were cautioned about being even more careful when using these kinds of equipment around pupils,” the Ministry said in a statement.
This online publication had reported that following two other instances where an 8-year-old child complained of being hit on his head and mouth by two different teachers of the school, the child’s mother asked the relevant authorities to intervene since the child came home with a burn mark on his hand a few weeks ago.
According to the Ministry of Education, a number of conclusions emerged from the discussions, which indicated that an arrangement was agreed upon to have the parents and teachers meet once per week, so as to become acquainted with the intervention strategies to foster a better teacher-parent relationship.
In this way, the teachers will have an opportunity to become aware of the parents’ strategies for dealing with the child.
Additionally, staff development sessions are scheduled to be held with teachers of the school on building teacher-parent relationships.
“The Ministry will never condone any behaviour that puts the nation’s children in harm’s way and will ensure that the school is a very safe space for our future leaders,” the statement added.
