Ontario College of Teachers Hearings -- September 2016

Three-member panels of the Discipline Committee conduct public hearings into cases of alleged incompetence or professional misconduct... Discipline Committee panels have ordered that summaries of these recent disciplinary cases be published in Professionally Speaking. Copies of the full decisions are available at oct.ca/members/complaints-and-discipline/decisions.

A Discipline Committee panel revoked the teaching certificate of Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board teacher Joseph Anthony Graziano who was criminally convicted of sexual offences against a student... Based on evidence in court documents, Graziano began grooming a student by assisting him on an exam in January 2011. He then told the student “you owe me” insinuating a sexual favour in exchange for the help provided. On February 9, 2011, Graziano brought the student into his classroom under the guise of discussing the exam and engaged the student in a conversation of a sexual nature. He blocked the door to prevent the student from leaving and then touched the student’s penis over his clothes. Graziano was found guilty of sexual interference and sexual assault in May 2013 and sentenced to six months in jail and two years of probation.

A Discipline Committee panel revoked the certificate of Brian David Pennycook, a former Thames Valley District School Board secondary teacher, for engaging in a sexual relationship with a female student at his school... Pennycook was involved in a sexual relationship with the student in the 1986–87 school year. He resigned from the school board in March 1987. Pennycook and the student later married and divorced.

A Discipline Committee panel revoked the Certificate of Qualification and Registration of a former teacher at the Halton District School Board for engaging in continuous sexual abuse of a student... The panel heard that in May 2005, following the member’s six months of communication with the student, she began to see him on a personal level. In the spring of 2007, they started to engage in sexual intercourse. They continued to have sexual intercourse many times over the next three years. In July 2014, she was found guilty of a criminal charge related to her actions with the student. She was sentenced to 90 days in jail to be served intermittently and three years probation. The court ordered a publication ban to restrict publication of information that could identify a complainant, a witness and the accused.

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Professionally Speaking - September 2016 by John Laws on Scribd