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About 20 children witnessed the incident, and reported their accounts to the school’s principal, Lovean said. MacKenzie was intervening in a playground conflict and put her face close to the Evan’s face and pointed her finger at him, she said. The fourth-grader felt threatened, put his arms up across his face and blew a raspberry, which generated some spittle, she said. The teacher then smacked him so hard it left a red mark on his face and prompted him to cry inconsolably for 45 minutes, she said.

Later that day Evan had a seizure — his first one in 1-1/2 years, said his parents.

“If I was to smack one of my patients, I would lose my job,” said Lovean, who works in health care.

Stressful situation

MacKenzie was at Wednesday’s hearing and pleaded guilty to both charges. She chose not to make any statements to the conduct panel when asked.

In his presentation to the panel, Alberta Teachers’ Association presenting officer Ian Stewardson said it is a rare event that a teacher would be spat in the face, and MacKenzie’s slap was “reactive” to a stressful situation.

Stewardson presented most of the evidence to the committee on paper, which the public is not allowed to see.

“The matter demonstrates the need for teachers to be constantly checking their behaviour,” he said.

MacKenzie was supervising children on the playground at the time without the help of an educational assistant, Stewardson said. She immediately regretted her actions, wrote up a description of the incident for the principal and later explained to students what she did was wrong.