Teacher fired after disclosing her HIV status

JOANNE CARROLL/STUFF

Gayle Jonker and her partner, Ken Manson.

A West Coast early childhood teacher has been fired, four weeks after she told her employer she was HIV positive. 

However, Gayle Jonker's former employer says her dismissal is unrelated to her health status.

Jonker said she was "mortified" by the way her HIV positive disclosure was handled by her employer, calling it uninformed and uneducated. A letter was sent to parents, along with a child illness pamphlet. A letter offering staff counselling was sent also.

The 55-year-old worked as a centre manager at Learning Adventures daycare centre in Cobden, which is owned by Evolve Education, for just under three months. 

Problems with her employers, Jonker said, began after disclosure of her HIV positive status. There was no legal requirement to disclose her condition.

Jonker was not infectious thanks to medication.

On Friday, three days before her 90-day trial period expired, Jonker was dismissed. Reasons put to her at a performance meeting included that Jonker had been "snappy", she was taking too long for lunch breaks and that she had been rude to a grandparent of one of the children. 

On May 12, she appeared in a Stuff story aimed at breaking down the stigma attached to HIV. Three days before publication, she told her colleagues at the daycare centre about her condition. 

Jonker attempted to tell her regional manager, but a staff member contacted the manager first.

"She kept asking 'why didn't you tell me?' I told her by law I didn't have to."

Jonker appeared in media coverage while working for an early childhood centre in Invercargill. She told her then manager, who was supportive and addressed individual parents' concerns. 

According to Jonker, her manager at Evolve Education went on to ask what her plan was.

"I told her I wanted her to deal with it how it was dealt with at my old centre – to reassure individual parents, who found out through the grapevine, that I was not infectious, that we had health and safety procedures in place," Jonker said.

The manager prepared and distributed the letter to parents:

"Gayle Jonker our newly appointed centre manager has brought to my attention that she is HIV positive. Gayle has been diagnosed since 2011 and has assured me she manages her medication and has regular blood tests to ensure she is not infectious," it read.

"I am sure this will come as a surprise to you and you will have some questions and I want to be able to give you the opportunity to read the attached links and information.

"As an organisation we do not discriminate against staff with disabilities, in fact we encourage diversity, however it is our responsibility to advise you how this is going to be managed. Our staff will be given support."

​Jonker said she was "mortified". "The letter went viral around Cobden School and a parent came in and went ballistic," she said. 

"Some parents were unhappy or shocked how they found out, but most have been nothing but kind. The child illness policy with this letter would have scared them because it implies I could make their children sick. 

Some parents asked Jonker for her medical records and personal information about her sex life.

"The actions taken [by Evolve Education] were uninformed, uneducated and a damaging response and is the worse experience of stigma and discrimination I have ever experienced. I have been named and shamed, excluded in any input of on how to inform parents or if they even needed to be at this stage," she said. 

"The reaction and response to my disclosure from Evolve Education has been stigma, discrimination, intimidation and bullying." she said. 

Jonker wrote to Evolve's chief executive and chief operating officer complaining about the way she had been treated. She received a letter back which said "we are genuinely sorry that you feel disturbed and humiliated by the way the issue has been managed".

"As you may expect we have a different interpretation of the timing and description of the series of events you have set out. However, from our perspective what is most important is for you to be assured that Evolve does not tolerate discrimination at any level. And we do not require disclosure – the choice to disclose was yours.  However, because the issue was to become so public we believe we had an obligation to the families to ensure they had information ahead of the publication of the article in Stuff," it said. 

"We firmly believe the reason we are in this situation, is the very short lead time between being advised of the media article being published and being able to provide our parents with information and reassurance that their children's welfare is not at risk, in a timely manner."

On May 25, the regional manager called Jonker to a meeting and told her she had issues with her performance.

"She brought up an incident when I first started about a child injury report where I said I had rang the parents but it was another teacher who rang them. It was an honest mistake. The parents should have been rung earlier but this was dealt with at the time, and I had no inkling that it was an employment issue until after I disclosed my HIV," she said. 

Evolve chief operating officer Fay Amaral said Jonker's dismissal had nothing to do with her HIV status.  

"It is an employment issue and I cannot comment further. We did not require her to disclose her health status. She chose to disclose this and there was no discrimination," she said. 

She declined to comment on Jonker's concerns regarding how the parents were told about her HIV status.