Petition seeks to compel teacher to respond to allegations
Case tests powers of new provincial disciplinary body
The body that regulates the B. C. teaching profession is taking legal action to force a Vancouver teacher to respond to allegations of misconduct.
In a petition filed this week, the Teacher Regulation Branch ( TRB) asks B. C. Supreme Court for an order that would require Sean McLaughlin to answer questions from investigators who are reviewing complaints that he engaged in inappropriate communications and physical contact with a student.
The petition is a test of new powers granted investigators when the branch was created within the Education Ministry in January 2012 to replace the B. C. College of Teachers. The college had no authority to subpoena witnesses or require disclosure of information.
TRB commissioner Bruce Preston alleges in the petition that McLaughlin, a teacher at Churchill secondary school, ignored repeated requests last year from investigators who wanted to interview him about the allegations.
“The commissioner submits there is no right to remain silent in disciplinary proceedings,” he says in the petition. “The respondent is compellable as a witness and must attend an interview to give evidence if required to do so.”
McLaughlin could not be reached Friday for comment, and the Vancouver school district would say nothing about the case, citing privacy reasons. The B. C. Education Ministry also refused a request for information while the case is before the courts.
McLaughlin, certified as a teacher in 1988, is accused of engaging in improper communications and physical contact with a student, who cannot be identified by court order, between 2001 and 2009 and writing inappropriate comments in students’ yearbooks. The district conducted an internal investigation and sent him a letter of discipline on Oct. 19, 2010, the petition says.
No details of the letter were provided.
The district then referred the matter to the college, as required by law, and the college began its own investigation. But that was turned over to the Teacher Regulation Branch when the college ceased to exist. Investigators contacted McLaughlin repeatedly last year, at work and at home, to arrange an interview, but he failed to cooperate, the petition says. In addition to asking the court to require his cooperation with investigators, Preston is also requesting that he cover the cost of the legal action.
The TRB is responsible for ensuring that educators in the K- 12 school system maintain high standards of competence and conduct in the interest of student safety and public confidence in the system.