CRIMES AGAINST TEACHERS: THE HUMAN COST OF MANDATES …
I am sitting here poring over the shocking personal testimonies of 700+ teachers who have lost everything as a result of the Qld Government’s ‘no jab, no job’ mandates.
Attempting to convey even a fraction of the enormous suffering these testimonies document, is incredibly daunting – particularly in a short Facebook Post like this.
However, I feel I owe it to every single one of these victims, to at least try.
The following quotes are taken at random.
If nothing else, I hope they give people a glimpse of the appalling ‘human cost’ these mandates have had on their fellow Queenslanders.
…..
“To lose the one thing that mattered to me, my role/job/passion … I felt so let down, kicked in the guts and excluded…”
“I’ve questioned why I dedicated a lifetime to this profession. Why I worked evenings, holidays, weekends and missed out on being with my own family”.
“This has devastated me. Both my husband and I have lost our incomes”.
“I am a single mother who is struggling to pay the rent.”
“I was a respected specialist teacher with exceptionally positive feedback from peers, parents and students. And now I am treated like a second-class citizen.”
“I am a sole parent and have no idea how we will survive”.
“I feel like just a number, gone and forgotten after 17 years of working my arse off and working through every lunch when not on playground duty for my students”.
“After 40 years I ended my career by being kicked to the curb like a stray dog!!”
“Just being left behind, in cold silence, after 10 years of teaching”.
“After years of faithful service to the education department I feel like I don’t matter, just a piece of old used up newspaper being tossed into the bin”.
“Staff who I thought were close friends do not speak to me anymore.”
“Have been abused by staff I thought were my friends. One yelled “you are killing people and my grandparents”.
“I was treated like a leper and isolated from other staff…put in a room by myself for nearly two semesters”.
“… co-workers showed glee that I would not be allowed to work alongside them anymore”.
“I was ridiculed and treated like a leper”.
“The discrimination and cruelty have been soul destroying”.
“My children who attend the school where I worked have been bullied and called “anti-vaxxers” … there was no support from the school or my former colleagues. This has felt like a personal attack.”
“Knowing that I was not going to be recognised or farewelled after 26 years of service was extremely upsetting”.
“I think the hardest thing was the lack of acknowledgement. After working at the school for 20+ years, there was no thank you, nothing, just termination and then silence”.
“Since the mandates …complete silence, even turning their backs on me to avoid conversation when I picked up my children.”
“Another staff member said publicly he was glad evil people like me would no longer be around to influence the next generation”.
“I was excluded from social gatherings long before the mandate … forced to eat alone. I have suffered so much anxiety, loneliness and depression.”
“I worked really hard to become a teacher and put so much effort into teaching and the school. I have had so much anxiety, stress and panic attacks …”.
“They made me feel like I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out again. The teacher’s union saying they wouldn’t help was heartbreaking”.
“People are ill, disabled and yet nobody, NOBODY cares if we live or die”.
“The whole experience has made me feel isolated, unsupported, shut down, invisible”.
“I just feel there was a complete lack of compassion. We have just vanished. No one talks about it. No one reaches out to us.”
“It’s like we don’t exist anymore”.