Early childhood education teacher Sonya Costello has had her teacher’s registration cancelled.
Photo: NZ Herald / Michael Cunningham

An early childhood centre manager who roughly handled, racially insulted and force-fed children in her care has had her teacher’s registration cancelled.

Sonya Kay Costello, a registered teacher of Whangārei, faced 11 charges of serious misconduct at the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal for incidents that spanned a decade.

The tribunal found Costello’s conduct fell into three categories: Inappropriate use of force, force-feeding incidents and inappropriate comments towards or about children.

In one brief of evidence, a staff member recalled a conversation in which Costello said a Māori child at the centre was “thick” and this was “what happens when your people are raped and pillaged”.

One teacher said she witnessed a force-feeding incident where Costello shoved a spoon of broccoli into a toddler, causing the child to cry and cough up a mouthful of chewed food.

Despite the child being visibly upset, Costello told the child to go to bed in a belittling manner and proceeded to make disparaging comments about his parents in front of others.

Another charge reported Costello rough handling a child by dropping the toddler on the ground and then using her foot to push the child to sit down.

“[The child] had done something at the kai table… Sonya got upset and physically grabbed him by the arms and lifted him out of his chair…

“She dropped him roughly on to the ground. [The child] got up again, so she grabbed his arms and used her foot to push his legs out so he would sit down,” a witness said.

Other incidents including forcing a teething necklace into the mouth of a 21-month-old toddler, placing hands over a child’s ears and holding them down to go to sleep, dragging children by the arm or hand for not complying and calling children inappropriate comments such as “pathetic”, “sookie” and “dumb”.

Many teachers gave evidence that Costello’s behaviour made them uncomfortable and they did not feel safe enough to come forward because of the culture of the centre.

The tribunal found the charges were proven given the number of witnesses and pattern of similar conduct over several years.

“Either multiple professional teaching staff have conspired and colluded to bring these allegations… or the allegations are truthful,” the tribunal decision said.

“Given the breadth of allegations and their similarity, and the lack of any plausible motives to lie or collude by any of the witnesses, we have no hesitation in finding all particulars proven on the balance of probabilities,” the tribunal said.

“The nature of the conduct, its breadth, and the lack of any engagement by the respondent leads us to the conclusion that the only appropriate outcome is the cancellation of registration and censure.”

Costello did not appear at the hearing.

* This story was first published by the New Zealand Herald.