Victoria, Australia
I've been a kindergarten teacher for many years. This year I decided to go for a position in administration.
Even though I wasn't in the classroom my legal responsibilities stay the same and in some cases become more severe.
There was an incident one morning where one year olds had somehow gotten a glass jar outside at the childcare I was working at. The glass jar was dropped on the concrete and shattered. Children are highly curious individuals and always investigate new materials right away. Soon as the glass jar hit the ground three children staring picking up the shattered glass pieces and of course, one of them stuck some in their mouth. The teacher called out to another teacher for help because “they have glass in their mouths.” As she had her pointer finger third knuckle deep, bent like a fish hook, in one of their mouths fishing for glass.
The glass was cleaned up and even the owner of the business walked by asking questions about it, seeming unconcerned.
Long story short there was never an intention to make incident reports or tell the parents.
I called it in to the department. I'm a mandated reporter, as all teachers are.
Two days later I was fired. Only reason given was “unfit for the business”. I was 3 months into my 6 month probation.
I thought there were laws to protect mandatory reporters…… guess not.
Worse yet, there are laws to protect children…. I wonder what else has been hidden there.