St. Mike’s incidents prompt calls for greater oversight
Province should stop giving private schools a ‘free pass,’ experts say, as province is urged to strengthen rules in wake of alleged assaults
The scandal at St. Michael’s College School, where police are investigating allegations of assault and sexual assault, is prompting calls for greater oversight of privately run schools.
Any school, publicly funded or private, “has to have transparency and good governance,” says Charles Pascal, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
“You can’t play hide-and-seek in publicly funded schools, so it’s imperative that this long-standing free pass for private schools is replaced with better governance,” said Pascal, a former Ontario deputy minister of education.
His comments come on the heels of allegations of assault and sexual assault involving students at the all-boys grades 7-12 school, located at Bathurst St. and St. Clair Ave. W.
About two weeks ago, two videos — depicting an alleged assault in a washroom and an alleged sexual assault in a locker room — appeared on social media.
The principal learned of the sexual assault video on a Monday evening, but didn’t immediately notify police, because he was busy with the victim and in meetings involving the expulsion of students. Two days later, on Wednesday around 11 a.m., police showed up at the school after media began asking them about the sexual assault video. The principal says he always intended to call police about it.
This week, six boys were charged with assault, gang sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon.
Police are now investigating six incidents at the school including two alleged sexual assaults, three alleged assaults and one incident related to threatening.
The school’s principal and president resigned.
In Ontario, there are about 1,300 private schools, with 140,000 students, that operate as businesses or non-profit organizations, independent of the Ministry of Education, but must follow the Education Act. The Ministry doesn’t regulate, licence, accredit or oversee the operation of private schools, and has a buyer-beware type of warning on its website, urging the public to do its own research before registering for them. Information on a school’s educational program, business practices and other policies should be obtained from it directly.
The ministry, however, outlines courses students must take to obtain an Ontario Secondary School Diploma, requires private schools submit an annual Notice of Intention to Operate and inspects high schools. Principals and teachers in private schools aren’t required to be certified by the Ontario College of Teachers.
Anyone who works with children must abide by the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (CYFSA), which clearly stipulates that they have an immediate duty to report suspected abuse or harm to a children’s aid society. Public school boards have protocols in place for when they should notify police, which covers incidents such as those of sexual assault.
Barbara Bierman, executive director of Ontario Federation of Independent Schools, which represents 149 private schools, says the law is very clear in the duty to report. And, some private schools do have protocols with police, but whether they do varies by region.
“They (schools) have to have policies in place for abuse prevention and intervention,” she said. “Otherwise, they don’t get insurance.”
St. Mike’s, which is overseen by a board of directors, is a member of the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario (CIS Ontario), an association of 48 private schools. CIS Ontario did not respond to the Star about whether its members have protocols in place.
Police welcome the opportunity to help St. Mike’s, and other private schools, with protocols. At a St. Mike’s alumni meeting this week, the administration said it plans to debrief with them on whether the episode could have been handled better.
Given what’s come to light at St. Mike’s, it’s time for the government to tighten its oversight of private schools, said NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles.
“It’s really kind of striking, when you look at what the Education Act requires of private schools,” Stiles said. “I think even parents of children in private schools would be surprised at how little oversight, and how little regulation, is required.”
Stiles said the government should mandate that private schools have clear processes in place when dealing with incidents such as those at St. Mike’s.
When she was a Toronto public school board trustee, she had to review, on a yearly basis, such protocols, the CYFSA, and her responsibilities as an employer.
“It’s quite striking to me that maybe that’s not required” outside the public system, she said. “At the very least, this indicates that there are some shortcomings in the private education system around understanding what people’s responsibilities are and what the protocols are, and that needs to be made clear.”
Marvin Zuker, a retired provincial court justice who is an associate professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, would like to see the Ontario College of Teachers regulate all teachers, whether they’re certified or not.
“Then they would be subject to the discipline of the college, and, once we can discipline you, we can get rid of you and you’re not going to go next door to teach.”
When it comes to reporting abuse, Zuker, who’s been teaching education law for nearly 40 years, always tells his students to contact a children’s aid society and police immediately. He plans on using the St. Mike’s case as an example in his lessons of what not to do, calling it “a great learning tool.” MPP Mitzie Hunter, who served as education minister in the previous Liberal government, said, when it comes to private schools, “the expectation would be the same as all public schools: that every student is safe and there’s a trust there. When parents send their children to school, that safety is paramount and there’s no compromise on that safety.”
With 95 per cent of Ontario students attending public school, it’s a small percentage who are in the private system and it may be time to look at changes, she said.
Public boards have “various levels of supervision and trustees who are publicly elected, so there’s additional oversight. There’s no question that, in the public system, there are many layers of oversight which do not exist in the private system,” she added.
“Certainly, the ministry (of education) has a role in registering those schools and there’s an expectation that they are safe environments, but the layer of oversight is not the same.”
Kelly Gallagher-Mackay, an assistant professor of law society at Wilfrid Laurier University, said protocols with police are “helpful, but not a guarantee,” when it comes to reporting.
“Protocols are a really important part of the network of protection for children,” she said. “When you don’t have that protocol maybe you’d make more of a decision that’s sort of about the institution.”