Teachers warned to be careful in relationships with students
College advises against texting, using Facebook, inviting children home
When it comes to the appropriate student-teacher relationship, the Ontario College of Teachers has advice for its members: avoid a lot of stuff.
Avoid inviting students into your home. Avoid becoming involved in students’ personal affairs. Avoid giving personal gifts, using your personal email address, and sending private text messages. Avoid sharing personal information.
Certain acts may seem innocent, one advisory states, but in hindsight, they could be seen “as a prelude to sexual abuse or sexual misconduct.”
In the recent case of Mary Gowans, 43, who pleaded not guilty in Ontario Superior Court to sexual assault and sexual interference of a former male student, the court heard how boundaries between the professional and private life of a teacher can allegedly blur.
During the judge-only trial, the court heard of thousands of text messages, a babysitting job for a former student in the home of his former teacher, and allegations of “brief sexual encounters.”
The prosecutor charged that Gowans “manipulated the teacher-student relationship” to be alone with a young boy. Gowans denied all allegations, insisting the only sexual encounter was when the boy made a crude pass. The ruling is expected on Friday.
To navigate the student-teacher relationship, there are standards and guidelines from the Ontario College of Teachers, in addition to guidelines and policies from unions, school boards and individual schools.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has a wide range of bulletins on its website offering advice on matters ranging from “allegations of sexual misconduct” to “professional boundaries.”
Failure to understand boundaries, one bulletin states, could lead to serious mistakes.
Margaret McNay, associate dean at Western’s Faculty of Education, says no course deals specifically with boundaries, but professional conduct is emphasized throughout different courses and in conversations with faculty advisers in the leadup to in-class practicums. Teacher candidates are also wellversed in the Ontario College of Teachers’ standards for ethical practice.
“I can’t say that we explicitly discuss every possible inappropriate behaviour, but we discuss professional conduct and the kinds of things that we’re talking about are dating your students, being too per- sonal and too friendly with them, telephoning and personal email, friending them on Facebook, we deal with these kinds of things,” McNay said.
New teachers are also told that different schools have different policies. “In some schools touching, even a pat on the shoulder, is absolutely considered inappropriate . . . so we try to alert them to these kinds of things, but there are differences in some areas from one school to another or from one school board to another.”
During orientation, teacher candidates get a crash course in appropriate uses of social media and their own personal brands.
The Ontario College of Teachers also advises its members to decline students’ Facebook friendship requests online. “The dynamic between a member and a student is forever changed when the two become ‘friends’ in an online environment,” one advisory states. David Hutchison, chair of Brock University’s department of teacher education, said teachers must always maintain a distinction between their personal and professional life. He said the faculty’s broad advice, in any online or faceto-face interactions, is for teacher candidates to ask themselves: “If a colleague, my associate teacher, or somebody back at Brock were to become aware of this interaction, would they see it as a professional exchange or not?” Hutchison said if teachers are going to integrate Facebook into teaching, they should have a separate professional account — and the same goes for Twitter. Brian Jamieson, a spokesman with the college, said he hopes issues about appropriate and inappropriate relationships are discussed in classrooms when it makes sense to discuss them, when teachable moments arise. “Kids have questions about these things, when they come up, they should be able to have good open professional conversations about them,” he said. A spokesperson for the Toronto public school board says it follows the professional conduct guidelines of the Ontario College of Teachers.