Punishing a teacher for inappropriate remarks towards his students is not easy: a youth involved in the process laments the cumbersomeness of the disciplinary process.
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Louis Mercier was the student council president at Montreal’s Sophie-Barat High School until last year. In this context, he participated in disciplinary proceedings aimed at punishing an experienced teacher who was going as far as to throw tantrums in the classroom and insult students.
The situation had been known for years. The youth says there were complaints from parents, but few restrictions were put in place until a new school administration came in, who decided to take matters into their own hands.
Despite this willingness, more than two months of proceedings resulted in a six-week suspension without pay for the ‘teacher’, audio recordings, a petition, new complaints from parents and an accumulation of anonymous testimony from students.
The latter later returned to class and finished the school year. “Some of the behavior came back, but we didn’t want to go back to a cumbersome process that would have taken several more weeks,” says Lewis.
The teacher has now left the school system for early retirement.
Photo Daphnée Dion-Viens
The youth believes it is difficult to “build a case” against a teacher, particularly because warnings sometimes disappear from personal files after five months, while reprimands or suspensions are not considered after 12 months. varies from service center to service center as per locally varying provisions.
“Extraordinary work of teachers” [ne doit pas être terni] by the behavior of a handful of individuals,” he said in an open letter.
Teachers unions point out that these provisions exist to prevent a teacher from being punished for a long period of time for one-time misconduct.
marker in place
Josie Scalabrini, president of the Federation of Teachers’ Unions, confirmed that all beacons are in place to protect students from teachers “who don’t have common sense”. “All the tools are there for a management to be able to rectify unacceptable situations,” she says.
At the Federation of Educational Establishment Directors, its president Nicolas Prévost also confirms that “all the tools are in place”, even if it is a question of sometimes “difficult and complicated” procedures.
