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Teacher sues MOE for her Own Stupidity

Leongsam

High Order Twit / Low SES subject
Admin
Asset
If morons are hired to teach sinkie kids, it's no surprise they don't know the difference between nouns and verbs.:rolleyes:
 

kingrant

Alfrescian
Loyal
If locked, just go to sleep lah. Or set the fire alarm on by interfering with the water sprinkler system.

A human can last 3 days without water, so in fact she only has one and half days to relax before Monday.
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
I think this lady panicked and just wanted to get out at all cost. People of this nature will seldom initiate a court case. Indians generally have the habit of making suggestions to family and friends and this lady must have got carried away.

For a case of this nature, one should get a decent litigation lawyer. Her lawyer is unheard of and she might end up with a token sum.

Good litigation lawyers undergo apprenticeship with good litigators or form part of their support team before they act for clients.
 

GoldenDragon

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
End of the day, only the lawyer wins whatever the outcome. Lawyers are always waiting for such opportunities. Free publicity.

If the client suggests to her lawyer he gets a certain percentage of her claims, if and when the case is won, I am sure the lawyer won't be keen. Can't recall the legal term for such arrangements but it is not condoned by the Law Society.

Remember the chap who lost over 20m in RWS and wanting to sue the casino?
Another case of being misled by lawyers.
 

simonsoh

Alfrescian
Loyal
the one thing i am concerned about is this. when she attends court, how is her absence accounted for? no pay leave or paid leave??? nin nah beh, if she is on paid leave means for everyday that she is trying to sue the school, she is being paid and schoold would have to fork another $100+ to hire a relief!!! can anyone in MOE clarify if leave is paid or unpaid?
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
Its a private matter. She would have to exhaust her annual leave and then go onto no pay leave.
the one thing i am concerned about is this. when she attends court, how is her absence accounted for? no pay leave or paid leave??? nin nah beh, if she is on paid leave means for everyday that she is trying to sue the school, she is being paid and schoold would have to fork another $100+ to hire a relief!!! can anyone in MOE clarify if leave is paid or unpaid?
 

MarrickG

Alfrescian
Loyal
Teacher sues MOE
Elysa Chen | The New Paper | Tue Oct 26 2010

She sues MOE for not providing safe work environment.

Teacher_sues_MOE-topImage.jpg


SHE panicked when she thought she was trapped in the school. And the thought of having to spend the weekend alone filled her with dread.

So when Madam Sivakami Sivanantham (above), 39, a teacher in Zhangde Primary School in Tiong Bahru, saw a ventilation gap along one of the staircases, she thought she had found a way out.

But when she tried to lower herself from the gap, which was 3.7m above the ground, she ended up falling and injuring her right ankle.

Her injuries were so severe, she needed a year's medical leave.

Now, the teacher of 15 years is suing the Ministry of Education, claiming that it failed to provide a safe work environment for her.

Madam Sivakami is still working as a teacher in Zhangde Primary School, where she has been teaching since 1999.

She teaches English, Mathematics, Science, Health Studies, Social Studies and Art.

The soft-spoken teacher took the stand on Monday, during the first day of the trial, which has been scheduled for five days.

Responding to Deputy Senior State Counsel Peter Koy, the form teacher of a Primary 2 class told the court how she had gone back to school on a Saturday to prepare the classroom for her lesson on Monday.

After finishing at about 12.30pm, she tried to enter the staff room, but found that the shutters had been pulled down. Both her classroom and the staff room are located on the second floor.

She said when she tried going to the ground floor using the staircases, she was surprised to find that the shutters there were down and locked.

She told the court that she could not recall staff meetings where teachers were briefed about emergency standard operating procedures.

Those procedures included informing the school's operations manager if they wanted to stay in school beyond 12.30pm on Saturdays, which were no longer official working days.

Although other teachers were in school that day, Madam Sivakami said that she did not inform anyone that she would be working in her classroom.

She had also left her personal belongings, such as her handbag and her mobile phone, in the staff room as she feared misplacing them.

When Madam Sivakami saw that the shutters to the staff room had been rolled down, she told the court that she tried lifting them, but could not do so.

She told the court: "I did not think that (the shutters would not be locked). In my mind, it was a way out, so I just tried it."

Later, Mr Koy told her that the shutters had been rolled down, but had not been locked.

But Madam Sivakami said that she had not been aware of that.


To attract attention, Madam Sivakami shouted "intermittently" as she climbed down eight different staircases, hoping to find a way out.

But she did not see anyone. Neither did anyone hear her, she told the court.

There were people in the Merah Saga Before and After School Care, which is in the school premises.But Madam Sivakami said that when she saw the entrance of the care centre, it looked dark, so she thought it was empty.

She told the court that she had also tried shouting from the corridor outside the staff room, but no one had gone to her aid.

She also went to the security guard counter, but did not see anyone there.

Mr Koy said that there were fire alarm panels which she could have broken to get the attention of people in the school. But Madam Sivakami replied that she was not aware of that.

When Mr Koy said that if she had taken more time, she would have found a possible exit route, Madam Sivakami disagreed, saying that she had not known of any other routes.

While she knew that the ventilation gap was not meant for people to climb over, she thought that she could successfully climb over it and let herself onto the ground - even though she did not know the exact distance between the ledge and the ground.

She had successfully climbed onto the 23cm-wide ledge, which had enough space for her only to lie along it.

She had even managed to cling onto the ledge so she could lower herself to the ground.

But 1.6m-tall woman did not have enough strength to support the weight of her body and fell to the ground.

Madam Sivakami said that she felt herself bounce off the drain, but could not remember if the drain had been covered.

She told the court: "I honestly believed that I could lower myself. It had not occurred to me that my hands could not bear my body weight."
 

Spock

Alfrescian
Loyal
I think females like her ought to serve NS to learn how to survive in unexpected situations. Even MSK knew how to use toilet rolls to break his fall. She is extremely unfit and does not know her own strength.

It is not as if she was trapped in a small room or closet, she was trapped in a large building. She could have spent more time exploring her options. If she can't handle a situation like this more calmly, I have serious doubts about her ability to teach.

A normal person would have been embarrassed and tried to explain that he did not expect the drop to the ground to cause injury, much less sue the school to broadcast his stupidity. Looks like some SGreans can be as stupid as some Americans. Too bad the legal system here is not as supportive to nincompoops.
 

myo539

Alfrescian
Loyal
End of the day, only the lawyer wins whatever the outcome. Lawyers are always waiting for such opportunities. Free publicity.........

How come Monsieur Ravi didn't smell this?

He should be helping this poor teacher for free.. and if she is a foreigner, all the more reason to help her - rather than help those drug traffickers, illegal immigrants and political demonstrators.
 

silverfox@

Alfrescian
Loyal
How come Monsieur Ravi didn't smell this?

He should be helping this poor teacher for free.. and if she is a foreigner, all the more reason to help her - rather than help those drug traffickers, illegal immigrants and political demonstrators.

He can help drug traffickers, illegal immigrants, political demonstrators, but don't do it pro bono. Because these people are not poor.
 

simonsoh

Alfrescian
Loyal
Its a private matter. She would have to exhaust her annual leave and then go onto no pay leave.

teaching staff no annual leave mah... either sick leave or compassionate leave rite? if its paid leave den damn jialat man.. one relief teacher 100+ a day. somemore being paid to sue the payer!
 

denzuko1

Alfrescian
Loyal
Spot on! Knowing their chao kuan, i wouldn't be surprised.

I truly share your sentiments. I have an Indian Engineer who behaves exactly like this. Any pressure on her, volcano errupts. In order not to carry out what I want her to do, she would even dare to go behind my back, talk to my superior cancel my orders. Unfortunately for her, my boss was on my side and still told her to proceed.
 

Alto Saotome

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset

Locked-out teacher awarded damages
She'll get 70% of $107,649 after admitting she contributed to negligence over injury

Published on Jun 5, 2012​

ST_20120605_IVISCHOLL1_3148237.jpg


ST_20120605_VISCHOOL2_3148239.jpg

Ms Sivakami Sivanantham (above), 41, sued the MOE after fracturing her right ankle in a fall from a ventilation opening 4m above the ground when she tried to escape from a locked school building in February 2006. -- TNP FILE PHOTOS

By K.C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent​


A teacher who fell from the second floor of a school building after she tried to get out of the locked premises was awarded $107,649 in damages.​

But because she had admitted to contributing to the negligence that led to the injury, she will receive 70 per cent of the amount.

Ms Sivakami Sivanantham, 41, had sued the Ministry of Education (MOE) over a right ankle fracture that she claimed had affected her subsequent work and promotion prospects, as well as caused pain and suffering that required future medical treatment.​

She had sought about $2.1 million in damages, while the Attorney-General, defending the ministry, was prepared to offer $95,474.​

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
 

Darth Vader

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset

Teacher wins appeal for higher compensation over fall in school

By Kimberly Spykerman | Posted: 03 October 2012 2007 hrs

SINGAPORE : A primary school teacher has won her appeal for higher claims in damages from the Education Ministry over a fall in school in 2006.

In a closed-door hearing on Wednesday, the High Court awarded Madam Sivakami Sivanantham S$250,000 in damages.

The amount is about S$150,000 more than what the court awarded her in June this year.

However, she will collect S$175,000, which is 70 per cent of the amount, as she had admitted that she was partly responsible for her fall.

Her lawyers had appealed three months ago for a higher amount on the basis that she had undergone several operations for her injury and for the loss of promotion prospects.

Madam Sivakami, 41, fractured her right ankle after she fell four metres from a ventilation opening, while trying to escape from a locked building at Zhangde Primary School in 2006.

She had panicked when she found herself locked in and tried to get out by climbing through the ventilation opening.

She was then left hanging by her hands close to four metres above the ground.

When she eventually let go, she fell and fractured her ankle.

Following the incident, she was hospitalised for a week at Singapore General Hospital and was on medical leave for more than a year.

During a five-day hearing in October 2010, the High Court heard that Madam Sivakami still suffers from psychological distress and could remain vulnerable to a relapse if faced with another crisis.

She claimed in her testimony that as a result of the fall, she has not been able to walk normally, play games with her two children or carry them.

- CNA/ms

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