Two teachers admit to sexual misconduct
DURHAM— Ontario’s College of Teachers has revoked the licences of two educators who admitted to professional misconduct involving sexual relationships with teenagers.
In decisions rendered earlier this year, the college said both teachers had admitted to the misconduct.
In one instance, a female teacher with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board acknowledged having entered into a years-long sexual relationship with a male student.
That teacher retired after being charged in 2015.
In the other case a male teacher, who was sentenced to jail time after admitting to luring a child on the internet, did not contest revocation of his licence.
In a decision rendered in May, the college found Raymond Hubbard, who had been employed by the Durham District School Board, had acted in a disgraceful and dishonourable fashion when he pursued an online relationship with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl in late 2015 and early 2016.
Hubbard, at the time 52 and a Grade 1 teacher at Terry Fox Public School in Ajax, had come to the at- tention of police in Michigan after engaging a young person there in online chats, said the record.
American authorities alerted police in Durham Region and an officer posing as a 14-year-old girl began chatting online with Hubbard.
The exchanges quickly became sexualized with Hubbard asking for pictures of the person he thought was a teenager and ultimately seeking a meeting with her, said a statement of facts entered into the record during his disciplinary process. Durham po- lice arrested Hubbard in January 2016.
In June of 2016, Hubbard pleaded guilty to one count of luring a child and was sentenced to a year in jail, followed by two years probation.
In a written decision, the college’s disciplinary panel characterized Hubbard’s behaviour as “disturbing.”
In a ruling issued in June, the college revoked the licence of Heather Elizabeth Earl, who was a teacher at John M. James Public School in Bowmanville at the time she was charged in April 2015.
Earl admitted to engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with a male student between January 1996 and December 1999; the student was 15 and Earl was 42 when the relationship began, but the teen was not a student at Earl’s school at the time, the record notes.
At one point, Earl paid the student $200,000 not to report the relationship to police, a statement of facts said.
The student contacted Durham police in April 2015 and Earl was charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
The charges were withdrawn at the request of the Crown in March 2016, said court records.
Earl retired in September of 2015, the college said.
During the disciplinary process Earl agreed to sanctions including a reprimand and revocation of her teaching licence, the decision said