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Teacher fired for endangering children sues old bosses

The Local Austria
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Teacher fired for endangering children sues old bosses
Photo: Priwo/Wikimedia

A teacher who was fired from a school after leading a group of schoolchildren across a railway track in Austria despite the level crossing being doing is suing her old bosses for unfair dismissal.

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She was one of four teachers - as well as several parents - accompanying the 83 children on a school outing to Leobendorf in Lower Austria in July.

They had returned to the train station to get a train home to Vienna when the incident happened. 

Witnesses told police that one of the adults climbed under the level crossing at Leobendorf station to reach a train back to Vienna from the other platform.

The rest of the group - including the children between 10 and 12-years-old - reportedly followed the adult, reaching the other side just before a train passed through the station.

After a complaint was made to police, authorities tracked down the teachers to a state school who were then later fired by the Vienna authorities.

Now one of the teachers - a 28-year-old - has hired lawyer Alfred Boran to either try get reinstated or receive compensation.

“She wants to work or at least receive her outstanding yearly pay, which is around 20,000,” he said, according to Heute.

According to the Krone newspaper, two other of the affected colleagues also want to take up legal action, although the fourth is not planning to as she is able to continue working in the autumn.

Some parents complained after the teachers were dismissed, arguing that it would damage the school children’s education.

Parent representative at the school Julia Köberl said in July she believes it was an “individual incident of misconduct” and the teachers are otherwise “excellent, responsible teachers”.

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