Teacher fired for professional misconduct

An award-winning Ottawa highschool teacher accused of having an “intimate sexual relationship” with two male students and kissing a third on the lips has been stripped of her teaching certification and fired by the city’s public school board.

Joanne Leger-legault pleaded no contest to the allegations of professional misconduct filed against her and did not dispute the facts presented to the Ontario College of Teachers discipline committee when it heard the case last year.

The committee agreed with LegerLegault’s own admission that she violated student-teacher boundaries by engaging in inappropriate relations with a total of four students and chastised her for abusing the position of trust and authority she had over the students.

“By engaging in inappropriate relationships with, and sexual abuse of students whom she taught, the member committed acts of professional misconduct as alleged. The member failed to maintain the standards of the profession, committed acts that would be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional and engaged in conduct unbecoming a member,” the Sept. 27 decision said.

The decision was quietly posted on the college’s website, but hasn’t been published widely until now.

The incidents in question involved four male students and span the school years 2001-02 to 200506. The school in question is not named.