Update 20 August 2009: the Manly Daily reports that Tziolas is nearly ready to take her case against the Education Department to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Tziolas was unfairly and unlawfully dismissed from her teaching position for exercising free speech in her personal time about her personal life outside work.

Update 15 July 2009: The Daily Telegraph has run a follow-up story about Tziolas. Her legal case against the education department is yet to proceed, and she is stressed and underemployed. All because some loser bureaucrats used their personal moral values to harass and unlawfully dismiss a teacher who had breached no contractual conditions or professional standards of behaviour. It’s pure discrimination. I hope she eventually earns millions and forces the education department to issue a public apology.

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.

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.

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:

Whenever a figure in public life has an affair, swaps lovers, gets divorced or generally appears to be more sexual than a crotchless doll, society gets in a tizzy.

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.