Ex-principal pleads guilty in test tampering

TORONTO — A former Ontario high school principal pleaded guilty on Friday to professional misconduct after tampering with a standardized provincial literacy test.

Christine Vellinga admitted in an agreed statement of facts with the Ontario College of Teachers that she went though student booklets after the test in March 2016 to see who hadn’t completed the work.

The college heard that in total, 21 students were then called back in to complete unfinished portions of the test or an accompanying questionnaire.

“[Vellinga] recognizes the serious nature of her breach and sincerely regrets her actions and the consequences of her actions on the students staff and board,” Vellinga’s lawyer, Kim Patenaude, told the college disciplinary committee hearing the case on Friday.

“She was honest, upfront and forthcoming,” Patenaude added.

Vellinga was responsible for administering the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test to about 170 students at her Bradford, Ont., school that year, the committee heard.

Vellinga was under a “significant amount of work-related stress” in the weeks leading up to the incident, the statement of facts said.

A supply teacher at her school had been charged with assault, and Vellinga had been experiencing problems with a student who had created a public petition and a social media post complaining about her, the statement of facts said.

Vellinga was suspended without pay for 20 days and demoted to vice-principal after allegations of the test tampering surfaced, the committee heard.

Vellinga and the college came to an agreement Friday that she should receive an official reprimand from the college, have her certificate of qualification suspended for six months and complete a course on ethical practices within 90 days of the disciplinary hearing’s decision.