Case Study 2: Lily Lily is an educator at Little.ly. You have been friends with Lily…

Case Study 2: Lily Lily is an educator at Little.ly. You have been friends with Lily for years – both at work and socially. She used have really great relationships with all the children at Little.ly and has been a model worker. Lately she has been going through a break-up with her husband and she has been very touchy and losing her temper easily with other staff. You work in the room with Lily but you have shifts that are either end of the day. Over the last three weeks you have noticed that the children in the room are unsettled and crying when you arrive for your shift or also when you return from lunch or programming. The children have been really clingy to you and have been looking at Lily a lot with uncertainty. This has been unusual behaviour for the children as Lily used to be their favourite. Today you saw her lash out and smack one of the children when they didn’t listen to her. The smack was on their bottom and the child was frightened by her behaviour and was crying. She said sorry to the child and gave him a cuddle to try to stop him crying. She did not know that you had seen the incident. Five minutes later you asked her if she was okay. She said yes and asked you to leave her alone to do her job, then she left the room. Given the stress that Lily has been under and her past reputation as a ‘model worker’, is her behaviour excusable? Discuss this in terms of Lily’s legislative responsibilities.