A Serbian teacher has been refused a Supreme Court review of her long-running dispute with Government. Dragana Damljanovic has not worked since last year, claiming she has been mistreated and wrongly accused of racism. She asked for a judicial review of her case.

However, Chief Justice Richard Ground ruled that such a review is not the appropriate method to resolve what he described as the "prolonged and unhappy saga of the applicant's employment as a teacher in Bermuda".

Ms Damljanovic, a social studies teacher, moved to the Island in February 2009 and took up a position at Sandys Secondary Middle School.

She filed an official grievance with Education Commissioner Wendy McDonell in April 2009, claiming she was harassed by staff members and discriminated against by the principal.

She alleged in an interview with this newspaper last month that Ms McDonnell wrongly accused her of racism and treating the children harshly.

According to the Chief Justice's ruling, the question of Ms Damljanovic's termination had arisen by mid-May 2009. She was suspended on full pay and later dismissed, but she challenged that decision and won a Supreme Court order plus costs in her favour in May 2010.

Meanwhile, there was an attempt in October 2009 to reinstate Ms Damljanovic to Sandys Secondary, with the Ministry of Education offering to provide a mediator to ensure her return to work went smoothly.

According to the Chief Justice, that attempt failed when it was rejected by her lawyer on a number of grounds including that she'd launched proceedings to challenge her dismissal.

Ms Damljanovic was reassigned to T.N. Tatem Middle School in Warwick in November 2009. However, she left after learning her position was as a substitute for a staff member who was going on maternity leave. She argued that the position was a demotion. However, in May 2010, the Commissioner of Education informed her that her absence from work meant that, under her terms and conditions of service, she had resigned from her job. It ceased to pay her salary a month before.

Ms Damljanovic protested that the Ministry had a legal obligation to pay her until the end of her contract in August 2012, and to reassign her to a new full-time teaching position. Meanwhile, the Immigration department began proceedings to deport her. As previously reported in The Royal Gazette, she challenged the deportation proceedings after being arrested and spending one-and-a-half days in jail last month.

The Chief Justice quashed the deportation order on September 23 because it mis-stated the grounds on which it alleged she was liable for deportation, and awarded costs in her favour. The order wrongly stated Ms Damljanovic had been convicted of a criminal offence when she had not.

On the same day the deportation order was quashed, the teacher also applied to the Chief Justice for a judicial review in her dispute with the Ministry of Education, asking him to restore her pay and benefits.

However, in a written ruling dated October 5, and since posted on the Supreme Court website, the Chief Justice rejected her application.

He wrote: "I do not think that any principles of public law are engaged. The employer is purporting to exercise a contractual right, and if it is to be said that that is done in breach of contract, then the remedy lies in damages for wrongful dismissal."

He also noted that "the employment relationship appears to have completely broken down" and "the court is concerned with procedural fairness and compliance with the statutory framework, and not with the merits of the underlying dispute. The applicant will not, therefore, obtain any vindication in respect of her conduct as a teacher by pursuing these proceedings."

Last month, the Chief Justice agreed that the matter of the deportation order should only be reconsidered once Ms Damljanovic's application for judicial review had been decided. Her lawyer Taaj Jamal said at the time that, once matters had concluded, "if she's given time to get her affairs together, she will leave".

Requests for an update from the Department of Immigration as to whether Ms Damljanovic will be subject to fresh deportation proceedings went unanswered yesterday.

Ms Damljanovic and her lawyer declined requests for comment.