Lynne Tziolas: truth beats propaganda
Update 4 August 2008: I’m getting sick of updating this story and I feel so sorry for Tziolas! Now the bureautards have sacked her, according to the SMH, the Courier Mail and the Manly Daily. The time for lawyers is over. The time for motorcycle riding, cricket bat weilding negotiators is here. It’s time to Dial a Biker.
Update 16 July 2008: the Australian today reports that Tziolas plans to sue the NSW education department. I hope she is successful. They could have avoided being sued if they had apologised, provided an appropriate new position and compensation for the stress already caused by their discriminatory behaviour. The widespread blogger opinion is one of weary disbelief and anger at the abuse of power perpetrated by the bureaucrats.
Instead they are likely to fight the case and lose. These public servants will cost taxpayers a lot of money. Their behaviour is corrupt, unethical, a breach of professional standards and a clear miscarriage of justice. They should all lose their jobs and be investigated for possible civil and criminal prosecutions for abuses of power and defrauding taxpayers.
Update 9 July 2008: an article in the Australian on 5 July 2008 reveals that the NSW education department tried again to harass Tziolas by deliberately placing her in a school far from her home, forcing her accept a long commute, which she thinks is unreasonable. At the very least she should be placed in an equitable position to the one she lost through no fault of her own. I hope she does sue the department for its obvious denial of natural justice and its failure to uphold its legal responsibilities as an employer.
Photo by Annika Enderborg from the Australian
Original post: The NSW education department has behaved with dishonesty, negligence and incompetence in its mishandling of the Lynne Tziolas case. First it discriminated against her and fired her unlawfully, then it tried to bully and manipulate her into not speaking out about her circumstances, then it lied to the public about how it was dealing with the issue.
Tziolas has won her job back and the Department has finally admitted to lying to her, her lawyer and the public, but the dishonest spin continues. Now the education department say they wanted her to shut up so that the publicity would not make it difficult for them to place her in a new school.
Liars. They want to shut her up because of the continuing embarrassment they have brought on themselves. Bureaucratic retards like to bully and manipulate those below them, but once they initiate such despicable behaviour and then find themselves experiencing the consequences, they cannot take it.
Now they’re getting really bitchy. The fuckwits in the education department have given her a job in a school for children with learning difficulties and behaviour problems. She has standard teaching qualifications but not the extra qualifications normally required of teachers in such specialised roles.
So the education department thinks it can use some special needs children to punish Tziolas. Nice. The children at the special needs school need the best qualified and experienced teacher available, which is not Tziolas. Using special needs kids to bully Tziolas undermines their education as well as Tziolas’ right to fairness and transparency from the education department in finding her a new school. It’s not her fault she is not allowed to return to her original school. She needs and deserves a position, like her previous one, in a mainstream school.
The minister for education should be held to account. It is unacceptable for the education department and the government to treat an employee in this way and to allow such bureaucratic corruption to continue. As blogger John Ray says, this is how a “nasty education bureaucracy tries to get revenge on someone who stood up to them.”
I agree with John that “Someone needs to crack down on these petulant sulkers.” The entire NSW government should be ashamed. Heads should roll. Workers and citizens have rights, and governments have responsibilities. They do not own us and cannot manipulate us to suit their perverse political agendas.
The broader issue is society’s attitude towards sexuality. Another blogger sarcastically comments:
Sex is a (mostly) harmless recreational activity and the problem is moral fuckwits who wants to force their shame and fear of sexuality on to everyone around them. Many people do not share these antiquated petty morals and refuse to be judged by them. The NSW education department needs to understand the reality of contemporary society.
As a teacher, Tziolas has apparently always acted professionally. As a private citizen, she has discussed her sexuality in a lawful manner. She has demonstrated maturity and intelligence in her responses to the circumstances she has found herself in. Society deserves the same high standard of behaviour from the fuckwit bureaucrats.
Posts you may find relevant and interesting
- modern world skills, 8 February 2008
- you do not own me, 10 May 2008
- victim or idiot?, 15 May 2008
- Fitzroy historical society and Residents’ association, 27 May 2008
- no representation without consultation, 14 June 2007
July 21st, 2008 at 6:39 am
When celebrities publish sex tapes or ‘indirectly’ distribute them to the media, it sells copy and increases a celebrity’s earning capacity, but if a private citizen does anything that isn’t similar to a sex tape, they become branded as incapable employees who have overstepped the social line.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:44 am
It’s been an interesting time for my wife and I recently. One point that I’d like to contribute is the fact that I too am a teacher and until recent events was on the casual teaching role at Narraweena where my wife worked. To date I have not been formally sanctioned by the Department of Education, even though as a casual I too fall under their Code of Conduct. Similarly, I believe that a Catholic Male Primary School teacher from VIC, Ryhs Uhlrich who featured in similar shots for “Make me a super model”, on the 7 Network, still has his job. He was congratulated for being a ‘hunk’, whilst my wife was forced to defend herself and asked why she should not be put on the list of those never to teacher in NSW. This list includes sex offenders. Go figure. Do sex and gender issues feature in government responses? Obviously they do. Antonios Tziolas