Teacher sues Vic Govt for $830,000 over 'defective' blackboard

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Teacher sues Vic Govt for $830,000 over 'defective' blackboard

3/03/14

A former science teacher is suing the Victorian Government for $850,000 in relation to injuries she suffered from using a "defective" blackboard over several years, according to the Herald Sun.

The paper reported that the former head of science at Maribyrnong Secondary College has claimed the Victorian Government breached its duty of care to her by failing to act on her complaints about a blackboard in her classroom.

“The problem here is that these blackboards were defective,” James Gorton, SC, for the former teacher Serpil Elturan, told the Supreme Court of Victoria.

“They would jam, they would be stiff, they were heavy, and they were really hard to use. Eventually it just got too much. The school said they would fix it but they never did.”

Ms Elturan now says she suffers dizzy spells, neck pain and cannot participate in normal everyday activities.Her legal team told the court that she first noticed the board was faulty in 2004 and lodged an accident notification form after suffering tendon inflammation as a result of moving the 3-panel blackboard.

“I have been moving it up over a year with a lot of force,” she said. “I’m not lifting the board up any more.”

By 2009, Ms Elturan says she was unable to stand up, and had significant surgery to treat her injury.

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