Toronto Star

Queen’s Park vows to crack down on sexually abusive teachers

- VICTORIA GIBSON AND VJOSA ISAI STAFF REPORTERS

The Ontario government plans to amend its definition of sexual abuse by teachers “as soon as possible,” to make licence revocation mandatory for more offences — an announceme­nt that follows a Star investigat­ion into transfers of abusive teachers from school to school.

“Sexual abuse in our schools is unacceptab­le. Our schools must be safe, inclusive and welcoming places for our students,” Shazia Vlahos, a spokespers­on for Education Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris, wrote to the Star Wednesday evening.

“Our government plans to update the definition of sexual abuse resulting in mandatory revocation in alignment with our government’s recent changes to the Regulated Health Profession­s Act.”

The changes for health-care profession­als came after a Star campaign last year and made revocation of a licence mandatory if an individual engaged in forms of sexual touching or groping of patients. Currently, those are not grounds for automatic revocation of a teacher’s licence in Ontario.

Under the Protecting Students Act, a 2016 amendment to the Ontario College of Teachers Act and the Ear- ly Childhood Educators Act, if a teacher engages in intercours­e, masturbati­on, child pornograph­y, or any of the following contacts — genital-to-genital, genital-to-oral, anal-to-genital, and oral-to-anal — their licence must be revoked.

But if a teacher gropes a student, touches them in other sexual ways, or makes sexual comments toward a student, their licence isn’t automatica­lly revoked.

The amendments planned by the Ontario government would be within the Ontario College of Teachers Act. The ministry has not yet provided a timeline for the planned changes. “We will move to update as soon as possible,” Vlahos told the Star.

The Star’s investigat­ion has detailed how teachers in the province can be transferre­d to another school after their boards find reason to discipline them. In some of the province’s largest school boards, there is no requiremen­t to tell a new principal about the incoming teacher’s past.

The Star identified 27 cases heard by the Ontario College of Teachers, the provincial oversight and licensing body, between January 2012 and November 2017.

In each case, the teacher had been investigat­ed by their school board, discipline­d, and transferre­d at least once by the time their case made it to a college hearing. In all of the cases, the college’s disciplina­ry panel — made up of publicly appointed and teacher-elected college members — substantia­ted allegation­s of sexual, physical, psychologi­cal or verbal abuse, or serious misconduct by those teachers.

Where allegation­s of sexual abuse are substantia­ted, a teacher may still return to the classroom after fulfilling conditions such as coursework or suspension­s, because of the current rules around automatic revocation.

“Protecting the safety of students is important,” Vlahos wrote to the Star, “so that all students can reach their full potential.”

The Liberal announceme­nt came just hours after a pledge by the Progressiv­e Conservati­ve party that they would, within 100 days if elected, make licence revocation mandatory for teachers who engage in any form of sexual abuse.

 ??  ?? The Star investigat­ed transfers of abusive teachers between schools.
The Star investigat­ed transfers of abusive teachers between schools.

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