Early childhood centre owner believes she is victim of witch hunt

A woman accused of mismanagement of an early childhood centre says allegations about her work practices are all false, made up by people on a witch hunt against her.

The woman’s actions while owner operator of an early childcare centre in Manawatū, which lost its licence in 2021 for failing to meet Ministry of Education conditions, were the subject of a Teaching Council Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in Palmerston North this week.

The name of the woman, the centre and witnesses have been suppressed.

She has been accused of incidents involving harm to children, mismanagement of the centre, which included how food was prepared, and unprofessional conduct.

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The woman gave evidence on Thursday and was asked by counsel for the complaints assessment committee Elena Mok in an exchange about why parents and teachers had all made similar claims against her.

“Are you a victim of a series of unfortunate circumstances?”

The woman said she was.

“You’re asking the tribunal to accept all these people are lying,” Mok said. “That’s your position, you’re telling the truth and all they’re all telling lies?”

“Correct,” the woman said.

“That’s despite the fact that they weren’t even working together at the centre at the same time,” said Mok. “Is it your position, that this is all a witch hunt against you?”

“Correct.”

“All these people have their own individual vendettas?” Mok asked.

“Correct.”

“You’re not suggesting they’re all colluding together to make stuff up against you.”

The woman said they were.

“This group includes people who don’t even have children [at the centre] any more. What’s in it for them?”

“They have to say that,” the woman said. “I can’t answer that.”

Mok said the woman engaged in inappropriate handling of children, including scraping unapproved food out of their mouth; encouraged teachers and parents to smack children; smacked a child on one occasion; used the sleep room to manage behaviour; and would threaten warnings to control staff and stop them speaking out.

“The real reason it took so long for the issues to come to light was because you threatened, bullied and demeaned staff over a number of years.”

The woman denied it all and said she never smacked a child. She said she never raised her voice or spoke inappropriately to staff.

She said the sleep room was not used for behaviour management or discipline, except for one instance where it was agreed for one child after they received a report from a psychiatrist. It only lasted for a week or two, she said.

The woman said she provided the ingredients for the food supplied to children at the centre but was not in charge of the menu. She also disputed there was a lack of variety in the food.

The woman said staff had lied when they said they were told off for throwing away food past its best-before date.

The centre was audited in January 2021, which found a number of the conditions that needed to be met had not been fulfilled. The woman thought most of the conditions had been met until she closed the centre.

“Our centre philosophy states that we need to advocate for children’s wellbeing.”

Tribunal member Nikki Parsons asked: “Why were there so many problems when you say you advocate for children and know the law, but there’s been multiple occasions of things you should know?”

The woman said she had been disappointed to see some of the things found to be wrong.

Tribunal member Rachael Schmidt-McCleave asked the woman whether she would have done anything differently in hindsight.

The woman declined to share her thoughts because it was personal.