Manitoba government says it will consider independent body to investigate teacher misconduct complaints
CBC
Manitoba's provincial government said Wednesday it is proposing changes to the way teacher misconduct is addressed in the province — an announcement that comes the same day as the release of a national report that urged the province to lift the veil of secrecy around sexual abuse complaints in Manitoba schools.
The report from the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection shows an increase over the past four years in complaints against teachers and other school staff across the country.
But the data is incomplete in Manitoba, because the province doesn't make its disciplinary records public, the centre's director of education says.
"An alarming finding within Manitoba was the difficulty to even establish what those numbers would be. And that should be something that's clearly available to the public," Noni Classen said in a Wednesday interview with CBC's Information Radio.
The province says it will gather feedback on its proposed changes to handling teacher misconduct, which include looking at ways to improve the public reporting processes.
That may involve creating a teacher registry, the province said in a Wednesday news release.
"We have had many conversations with not only Manitoba Teachers' Society but Manitoba School Board Association … Manitoba parent councils and Canadian Centre for Child Protection on how we need to continue moving forward and strengthening and ensuring that our youth and our children are safe," Education Minister Wayne Ewasko told reporters on Wednesday.
In addition to making disciplinary records public, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection report recommended establishing an independent provincial body to receive, investigate and adjudicate complaints of sexual abuse and misconduct.
The province says it will consider that recommendation as part of its consultations, but did not provide a timeline.
Other changes proposed by the province include defining what constitutes misconduct that would require reporting to the department of education, and updating teacher certification review processes.
The province's news release said consultations will be held to get perspectives on the proposals from students, parents, guardians, teachers and school administrators.
The president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society said they are working with Ewasko and other "education stakeholders" on the issues raised in the Canadian Centre for Child Protection's report.
"You will find no bigger advocates for the protection of children and youth in our schools than teachers. We believe child abuse of any kind is unacceptable," James Bedford said in an emailed statement.
"No doubt, we'll be discussing many of the ideas included in the government's news release today."
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.