Damages awarded to teacher

The Victorian Education Department could face a wave of law suits after a judge awarded about $1.2 million in damages to a former teacher who developed chronic depression after he was forced to teach the worst behaved students.

Apparently the secondary school teacher was teaching  at Werribee Secondary College which divided its years 8, 9 and 10 classes into five streams - accelerated, high achievers, medium achievers, low achievers and foundation.(streaming) Mr Doulis told the Supreme Court the bottom classes included students who had ADHD, autism, dyslexia and acquired brain injuries, while most of the other students were very badly behaved and he taught them.Justice Ginnane said it was "reasonably foreseeable" that Mr Doulis might suffer a psychiatric injury because of his teaching responsibilities and that the state had owed him a duty to take care to avoid him from developing the condition.

This will open up a huge can of worms for DEECD and the private system and I bet they appeal. Go to the Age to find out more about the case. ( I think we'll be hearing more)

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/former-teacher-peter-doulis-awarded-damages-over-unruly-students-20140905-10cx5r.html#ixzz3CQTtKyD9