Ontario College of Teachers Hearings - June 2014

Discipline Committee panels have ordered that summaries of these recent disciplinary cases be published in Professionally Speaking.

• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the teaching certificate of Waterloo Catholic DSB teacher Aaron Weston Michael Aird for engaging in a sexual relationship with a student... Aird was charged in March 2010 with two counts of sexual exploitation resulting in a criminal conviction of sexual exploitation and sexual touching, and a sentence of 12 months in jail and 12 months of probation.
• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the certificate of Toronto DSB secondary school teacher Peter Jeffrey Floro for inappropriate communication with students, including inappropriate electronic communications, comments of a sexual nature and sexually abusing a student... Floro “abused his position as a teacher by having inappropriate communications with four students, one of which culminated in sexual contact.”
• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the teaching certificate of Toronto Catholic DSB teacher Orlando Franco Fusaro for grooming a student for a sexual relationship... The panel heard evidence that, during the 2010–11 school year, Fusaro moved the female student’s desk next to his during class, revealed personal aspects of his domestic relationship, exchanged hundreds of emails of a personal and sexual nature, and commented on the student’s physical attributes. During a playful event in a park in June 2011, Fusaro grabbed the student’s buttocks, which resulted in a charge and conviction of sexual interference. He pleaded guilty to one count of sexual interference and received a 10-day intermittent jail sentence, 100 hours of community service and three years of probation.
• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the teaching certificate of former Rainy River DSB teacher Darcy Douglas Jack for voyeurism... In February 2008, while two former students were babysitting his children, Jack secretly filmed them showering and performing their bathroom rituals in his unfinished basement bathroom. A camera he had installed was directed at a shower and toilet stall and the students were unaware they were being watched and taped. The images were recorded on a rented laptop. Upon its return, a rental store employee discovered the images and alerted the police. Jack was subsequently charged in April 2008 and pleaded guilty that August to voyeurism, for which he received a conditional sentence of 90 days and 12 months’ probation. He resigned from the Rainy River board in August 2008.
• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the certificate of Lambton DSB teacher Dale Vincent Gerald Maheux for sexually abusing a female... It was alleged that Maheux had inappropriate contact with the female, which included rubbing the back of her legs, touching her buttocks and her vagina, and having her touch his penis. In July 2011, Maheux was charged with sexual assault and sexual interference. The Ontario Court of Justice found him guilty of the charges in November 2012 and, in April 2013, Maheux was sentenced to six months in jail.
• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the teaching certificate of former York Region DSB teacher Danny Schnabel for engaging in an inappropriate personal relationship with a student... In November 2011, Schnabel advised his school principal of a potential threat from the parent of one of his enriched program students after the parent learned that Schnabel had been seeing the girl outside of class. The teacher admitted to inviting the student to his home for dinner in July 2011, and meeting her alone at his home almost weekly from September to November that same year. During that time, he kissed, physically touched and held the student. He also took her by car or public transit to movies, art galleries and her family doctor’s office. Schnabel resigned from the school board in December 2011.
• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the teaching certificate of former Greater Essex County DSB teacher Peter David Scorrar for engaging in a sexual relationship with a student... At the start of the 1988–89 school year, Scorrar began flirting with one of his students. The conduct continued and escalated to the point at which he kissed her on the lips in sight of other students on the last day of school. That summer, the member visited the student at the restaurant where she was working, walked her to her car after work and kissed her. On more than one occasion during the first month of the next school year, the member drove the student to secluded areas where he would rub, fondle and/or kiss her. Between October and December 1989, he engaged in sexual intercourse or other inappropriate sexual conduct with her. Also during the 1988–89 academic year, Scorrar invited the student to his home and when confronted by the student’s mother threatened her by saying that she would never see her daughter again. The student, now a teacher, provided personal journal entries from the time, a letter from Scorrar and notes from a meeting with the school’s principal to support her testimony.
• A Discipline Committee panel revoked the teaching certificate of a College member who engaged in inappropriate relationships with two students while teaching in British Columbia... While teaching at a BC high school between 1996 and 1998, the member consorted with a student in a two year relationship that involved flirting, personal conversations, kissing, hugging, gift giving, and sexual fondling over and under clothing. The member told the student that, even though their relationship was special, he could lose his job if other people learned about it. Between 1995 and 1997, the member sat a second student on a desk, spread her knees with his hands and told her, “I would like to rip your shirt off right now.” On another occasion when the student was at his home he invited her to try out his new shower.

Details can be found here:

Jun 2014 Professionally Speaking by John Laws

It was all a misunderstanding: