Without question, most teachers in Newfoundland & Labrador are outstanding. This petition is not about those teachers.

This petition is about teacher misconduct. It is also about the complete lack of transparency and accountability for parents and their children in this Province.

Were you aware that f your child faces a case of teacher misconduct - regardless of the severity of the teacher's mistreatment - as a parent, you currently have no right to information about how your complaint is handled by the School Board?

Unbelievably, under the current system, if you make a complaint about teacher misconduct, you will not be given access to any information about the results of the School Board's investigation, or even whether one has taken place.

Furthermore, parents also cannot access information about measures taken to protect your child (if any), or the disciplinary action (if any) taken against the teacher. Instead, parents are told such information is a "private and confidential" matter between teachers and the School Board.

Even if a teacher has had multiple disciplinary actions taken against them for serious classroom misconduct, and is still teaching, you have no right to that information either.

Astonishingly, a recent investigative report by CBC's Marketplace in April 2016, called "Trouble in the Classroom", found the average time it takes for a teacher to be dismissed in Canada after misconduct is 4 years, if at all. Watch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XMWUuYGqu18).

This documentary also gave the Province of NL a failing grade of "F" for the lack of transparency and accountability in our public education system citing the complete "secrecy" with which teacher misconduct and discipline is treated in this province.

Children in this province need, and indeed, deserve, much better protection than is currently provided under NL's regulatory framework. This secrecy puts children at unnecessary risk, and hand-cuffs our ability as parents to help our children if they face teacher misconduct.

We kindly urge you to sign this petition to demonstrate to the Minister of Education & Early Childhood Development the level of support that exists for critical system reform.