Trustee claims witch hunt
Says complaint was sparked by her call for audit
A Toronto public school board trustee who says she was the whistleblower who called in a provincial forensic audit of the board this week now says she is facing a harassment complaint by a senior school board staffer alleging she pressured him to hire her children.
Elizabeth Moyer, trustee for Scarborough Southwest, says she is the target of “a witch hunt because of my letter to the minister” of education. Ms. Moyer says she sent the letter May 31 requesting a forensic audit by the province because of ongoing concerns she had as chair of the Toronto district School Board’s audit committee. TdSB acting director donna Quan also sent a letter of her own to the education minister in June requesting a forensic audit.
Ms. Moyer says she received a letter from TdSB acting director donna Quan on Friday informing her of a workplace harassment complaint against Ms. Moyer by Jim Spyropoulos, co-ordinating superintendent of equitable and inclusive schools. A copy of the letter provided to the National Post said that Ms. Quan would be starting an investigation into the complaint.
Ms. Quan’s letter was accompanied by another letter from Mr. Spyropoulos’ lawyer outlining the complaint’s details. It alleges Mr. Spyropoulos felt “intimidated and harassed” by Ms. Moyer and that the trustee was “exerting inappropriate influence” over him to hire her two daughters this summer for Focus On youth, a summer program that Mr. Spyropoulos oversees. It also alleges that Ms. Moyer had touched him in “a way that was unwelcome, once by hugging me and once by touching my face.”
Mr. Spyropoulos could be reached for comment Friday. Ms. Moyer calls the harassment complaint “completely unfounded.” She says she has already been accused by some board trustees and staff of having a conflict of interest as chair of the audit committee because her daughters had been hired by the Focus On youth program last summer, a program that has been subject to previous audits by the board. She says she is consulting a lawyer on whether or not she has a conflict.
Ms. Quan said she could not speak “to the specifics of any of the matters because they are personnel matters.” She said in general, workplace harassment complaints come under the board’s code of conduct policy and are investigated by the board’s employee services department. How long an investigation can take “depends on the complexity of the case.”
TdSB trustee Sam Sotiropoulos, who also sits on the audit committee, was not aware of any harassment complaints against Ms. Moyer but said he has “seen no evidence of a witch hunt” against her. Instead, he accused Ms. Moyer of working with other trustees to “undermine” Ms. Quan. He said Ms. Moyer had inappropriately acted “unilaterally, without the knowledge of the entire audit committee” to write to the education minister.
“Clearly I had no allegations against me whatsoever until after I wrote a letter to the minister. All of these allegations are simply because I’ve been a whistleblower,” Ms. Moyer said.