Critical Incident Reflection

Critical incident date: 23rd of February 2016

During lunchtime when students were playing outside, there were two female
students from my class (early primary school) who cornered a prep in the toilets and
would not allow her to go outside until she pulled her pants down in front of them.
This created a chain of events, as the teachers of the students were notified and had
to talk to the students involved. An apology was required by the students to the prep
student. The principal was swiftly notified, and a phone call was made to all parents
involved, who also followed up with the behaviour at home. When discussing this
event with my supervising teacher later, it became a more significant event to me
when he expressed concern that one of the parents mentioned that a similar incident
had occurred to her daughter previously. This consequently raised concerns about
the nature of this incident mentioned by the parent, and was addressed to the
principal as it was a concern that the issue may have been one of abuse. This
consequently raised issues about whether reporting to DHS was necessary.
My main concern that resulted from this incident was the depth of thinking that is
required for teachers. In every situation within the classroom and schoolyard,
teachers must consider the outside factors that relate to the issue, and how this has
resulted in the child acting a certain way. Goldman (2010) states that no other
professionals have such close, continuous, daily contact with child abuse victims on
a day-to-day, long term basis or have such an extensive knowledge of the children in
their care (p.283-284). Because teachers spend such considerable time with
students every day, they need to be extremely aware of the child and how they
change during their schooling, and be knowledgeable in the issues surrounding the
child in order to understand the potential situations that may be occurring outside the
school environment. Furthermore, teachers must be aware of school policies
surrounding potential abuse, and also must seek advice from the principal or lead
teachers if unsure about the situation.
This incident made me extremely aware that as a teacher I must continually be
aware of the children in my classroom and school. I became extremely aware of the
depth of the responsibility that teachers have, as teachers are one of the key people
who are responsible for the protection and care of children. In my future teaching
practice I have become more conscious of the importance of taking notes on
students behaviour that is negative in the classroom, and the need to analyse
potential reasons behind this behaviour (whether it is a wilful student or other
reasons), as well as the importance of having a mentor teacher as a graduate
teacher, someone who can assist with these concerns.

References
Goldman, J. (2010). Australian undergraduate primary school studentteachers
responses to child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting. Pastoral Care in
Education, 28(4), 283-294. doi:10.1080/02643944.2010.530679