A Canberra teacher who was fired for bringing a 3D-printed gun to school to promote her technology elective has lost an unfair dismissal case.
The high school teacher had worked in ACT schools for more than two decades when she brought the replica firearm to school, intending to use it to demonstrate the capabilities of 3D printing, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) heard.
At the times, she was the Digital Technology and Maths Teacher and ran a 3D-printing elective that she was trying to promote to students.
After she showed the 3D-printed gun to her supervisor, the matter was reported to the school principal, and police were called to seize the item.
The teacher was later fired for serious misconduct. FWC has now rejected her claim that the dismissal was unfair.
‘You can’t show that to students’
In April last year, the teacher met with the school’s principal to discuss ways of better engaging students through technology-related learning, including 3D printing.
Over the following weekend, she printed a replica gun using a 3D printer and plans she had downloaded from the internet, FWC heard.
She then took the replica to school and showed it to her supervisor, demonstrating that the top of it could be pulled back, “imitating the act of preparing to fire”, FWC Sarah McKinnon said in her findings.
The supervisor told the teacher she could not show the replica gun to students.
The teacher said she was confused by the response and did not know what the problem was but took the 3D-printed gun home and did not show it to students.
The following day, the incident was reported to the school’s principal and police attended the school, later seizing the replica firearm and 3D printer and issuing the teacher with a caution.
When the teacher was issued with a show cause notice for termination over the matter, she “vehemently” denied that she had intended to show the gun to students and said she should be issued a warning instead.
She later changed her position, telling FWC that she “did bring the relevant 3D-printed item to school with the intention of showing students, subject to approval from her supervisor”, and that she “regrets her conduct”.
FWC found that the teacher had brought the 3D-printed gun to school as an “example of the capabilities of 3D printing”.
“She had taken the feedback about student engagement seriously and was determined to encourage greater student uptake of a 3D-printing elective next year,” McKinnon said.
‘An astonishing lack of judgement’
The teacher was dismissed at the start of this year and launched a FWC case arguing the dismissal was disproportionate and harsh.
FWC found that while there was no malice behind her actions, the act of bringing the replica gun to the school “showed an astonishing lack of judgement for such an experienced teacher”.
“Replica firearms are prohibited for a reason: they look real,” McKinnon.
The teacher told FWC that she had planned to get permission from her supervisor before showing it to any students.
McKinnon rejected that evidence.
“This could not have been her purpose at the time, because it had not yet occurred to [them] that there might be a problem with her plan,” she said.
McKinnon also said she was not convinced the teacher “genuinely understands that what happened was so inappropriate in a school setting”.
FWC found the incident amounted to unlawful conduct and was inconsistent with the duty of care as a teacher.
It rejected her unfair dismissal claim, finding that ACT Education had a valid reason to dismiss her and had followed a fair process.
“ACT Education had a valid reason for dismissal and the process it followed in relation to the dismissal was a fair one,” McKinnon said.
