Abusive teachers could be 'falling through gaps' in current system: Alberta education minister

In 2014, a Manitoba teacher sent vulgar and demeaning comments via Facebook to a student and her mother. He went on to teach in Nunavut where his "aggressive and unprofessional behaviour" finally cost him his Ontario licence — almost six years later, according to the decision from the discipline committee of the Ontario College of Teachers.

In 2016, a B.C. teacher was stripped of his licence, 40 years after being admonished by his then-employer for allegedly engaging in sexual activities with teenage students, according to provincial documents. In those four decades, he continued working as a teacher both in B.C. and abroad. 

And in the fall of 2019, Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange was so upset about a Calgary teacher who inappropriately touched multiple preteen students that she overruled his two-year suspension and permanently yanked his teaching credentials.

Thus began LaGrange's mission to make classrooms safer for students by toughening the disciplinary process for Alberta teachers and advocating for a national registry that would flag problem teachers to potential employers.

Because the disciplinary process varies by jurisdiction and the country currently has no central repository of serious abuses by teachers, "there could be people falling through the gaps," LaGrange told CBC News in an interview. 

"We want to make sure that our parents and our children that attend our schools know that they're safe and that we're looking out for their best interest," LaGrange said.

"When we have these unprofessional conduct situations … some of them are just heartbreaking." 

In March 2020, LaGrange wrote her provincial counterparts urging them to support her efforts to get the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) to address teacher discipline.

"As Ministers of Education, we have a moral obligation to ensure our children and our staff are safe," LaGrange wrote in a March 6, 2020, letter to Nova Scotia's then-education minister Zach Churchill. The letter was obtained by CBC News.

"It is essential that we work together, across provinces, to ensure those who abuse their position of authority and trust over our students are not welcomed in any classroom across the country again."

Her campaign resulted in CMEC tasking a committee to research creating a national registry of teachers who had been disciplined or lost their licence. LaGrange said the committee's recommendations are to be released soon. 

In Canada, teaching certificates are governed by territory or provincial education ministers like LaGrange. 

Disciplinary proceedings, on the other hand, vary between jurisdictions, with some handled by teacher associations and others by separate regulatory bodies such as the Ontario College of Teachers. The process can also vary between public and private schools — in Alberta, for example, issues in the latter are handled by the provincial government.

But, "this information is not being tracked," in that there is no central location where that repository of information can be found, said LaGrange.