Sixty witnesses testify teacher belittled and humiliated kids

EDMONTON An Alberta teacher found to have humiliated and belittled students for 36 years will learn her fate Monday after a professional disciplinary hearing unprecedented in scope was held.

An Alberta Teachers’ Association conduct committee heard from 60 witnesses, including students as young as fifth graders, before ruling in the case Friday against 65-year-old Frieda Anne Mennes.

The panel found Mennes guilty of eight unprofessional conduct charges covering a period stretching back to 1981. The hearing lasted 23 days between last March and November in both Edmonton and Brooks. In that time, teachers, district staff, and past and present students and parents painted a picture of a woman who retaliated against those who raised concerns about her.

Mennes said she is innocent and will appeal any rulings or penalties levied against her.

The case is an “ugly undercurrent of disdainful conduct to students,” Konni deGoeij, an ATA presenting officer, said Friday.

DeGoeij said teachers testified about “deprogramming ” Mennes’s students the following year so they would feel less anxious in class. Support staff who worked with the teacher said they went home in tears and lost sleep over what they witnessed but, as contract employees, felt powerless to complain about her, deGoeij said.

Students said Mennes changed her behaviour when other adults were in the room. They said they felt belittled and humiliated, and were sometimes kept in from recess for weeks or months. Witnesses said some children had stomach aches and headaches when they had to go to school, and one refused to get out of the car every day.