Damning report slams Spence for ‘egregious breach of trust’
College posts 50-page document detailing its decision to revoke former TDSB director’s licence
Chris Spence was “deceptive and manipulative” when he deliberately engaged in “repeated and extensive plagiarism” that violated public trust and tarnished the reputation of the education profession, the Ontario College of Teachers has found.
The former education director of the Toronto District School Board was stripped of his teaching licence in December after a college discipline committee found him guilty of professional misconduct.
This week, the reasons for that decision — the harshest penalty available to the college and a first for a plagiarism case — were made public in a 50-page report posted on the college website.
Spence, who last month gave notice he plans to fight the college’s ruling, will file an appeal with Ontario’s Divisional Court in the next few weeks, his lawyer, Christopher Edwards, said in a statement emailed to the Star on Thursday.
The committee’s damning report cites a “repeated pattern of dishonesty” by the once highly regarded educator and “clear and convincing evidence” of plagiarism in 14 excerpts from newspaper articles — including four published in the Star — blog postings, books and a speech, all written between 2002 and 2013.
“The member’s acts of plagiarism over an approximately 11-year period were not mistakes; they were deliberate attempts to receive credit for the work of others, and served to bolster his reputation through writing he did not entirely author,” the three-member committee wrote in its decision, dated Feb. 23.
Spence “violated the public’s trust and regard for the member as a wellknown member of the education community, and tarnished the reputation of the teaching profession,” it said.
Rulings of professional misconduct are rarely appealed, according to the college. But in a statement to the Star last month, Spence called the penalty, which comes four years after the explosive allegations first surfaced, “disproportionate and unprecedented,” and said he’s determined to challenge it.
Spence, 54, is currently working in Chicago and has said he wants to teach again. But without a certificate he cannot teach in any publiclyfunded school in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada.
He is also facing a separate investigation at the University of Toronto, which is probing whether he should lose the doctorate he earned in 1996 because of improperly credited material in his thesis.
The committee’s report includes samples of 14 pieces of Spence’s published writing, along with what is described as original source material. It also outlines testimony from a college investigator and TDSB communications officer Ryan Bird.
Spence did not appear at his hearing in October or the penalty hearing in December, citing health reasons.
The fact there were only two witnesses angers supporters like Rob Davis, a former trustee with Toronto’s Catholic school board.
“Did they hear any evidence from any students? No,” Davis said in an email statement. “Did they hear from any parents? No. Did they hear any evidence from any teachers? No. We think Chris needs a new hearing so the whole story can be told.”
Davis is co-chair of “the Spence Defense,” a community group that’s crowdfunding to raise money to cover legal costs for the appeal.
His co-chair Bruce Davis, a former chair of the TDSB, called the college’s ruling “disproportionate” and said Spence has “a lot of support in the community.”
The college’s report described find- ings of investigator Adelia Da Silva, who examined the samples of writing published under Spence’s name and 22 sources from which he had allegedly lifted the material.
It also included testimony from Bird, who worked closely with Spence, including providing “editorial and administrative support” when the former education director was writing for publications such as the Star.
It was the final one of the four Star pieces published between 2010 and 2013 that first prompted accusations from a reader that led to Spence’s resignation, several investigations and subsequent disciplinary procedures.
According to the report, Bird, who declined to comment Thursday, said he had no reason to ask Spence about sources for his articles, given that he was a published author, with a doctorate and the top job at the board.
Of all the examples presented to the panel, those involving personal anecdotes were most disturbing, members said in the decision.
One was a piece published in the Star on Dec. 16, 2012, about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which Spence describes the pain of having to explain the tragedy to his 10-year-old. He was later accused of lifting that passage from a piece in St. Louis Today, and adapting it to his own son’s name and age.
In using experiences of others, Spence demonstrated “that he would have been aware that he was taking the words of another, and substituting his own personal details to adopt the experience as his own.
“In doing so, the member engaged in the most egregious breach of trust to those who respected him and looked to him for personal insights and guidance.”
In an interview with the Star earlier this year, Spence said he has owned up to his mistakes and taken responsibility for his actions and that he is “filled with regret and remorse.”
He said he was reeling after the news he was to lose his licence and had already paid a heavy price for his mistakes.
He also said he thinks his public fall from grace could be an example to kids of how to get back up after being knocked down.
But the report found that revoking his teaching certificate was appropriate.
Spence “betrayed the trust placed in him” and “lost sight of his moral responsibility as an educator and leader in the system,” it concluded.