A teacher in B.C. has been banned from the classroom for life. The province’s Commissioner for Teacher Regulation made the ruling after an investigation revealed the individual had exchanged inappropriate text messages with a 17-year-old student.
The teacher also admitted to having had a sexual relationship with the student. (Neither the teacher’s name, nor that of the student, has been made public to protect the student’s privacy.)
What separates this case from similar instances in years gone by, is that the story doesn’t end there.
For decades, it was known that teachers across Canada could be fired for improper behaviour and find a teaching job elsewhere.
In effect, school boards hushed the matter up, leaving new employers to uncover the truth. Often, they failed.
On one occasion, a teacher in B.C., dismissed for sexual misconduct, was hired at another school and went on to re-offend. It was only then that his prior history became known.
The country’s education ministries spent years trying to tackle this problem. Part of the difficulty they faced was that even if news of a dismissal were circulated within a given province, there was nothing to prevent the offender simply relocating to a different part of the country and continuing to prey on pupils. (more...)
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