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.
11 Comments
Ridiculous that parents are kept in the dark about what happens in the classroom. We deserve to know if our kids are safe.
We must ensure our children are comfortable and feel safe in their environment, if not we have failed.
PARENTS NEED ANSWERS. Stop hiding behind privacy policies. If a teacher is a problem the school board needs to be open about it.
This is not meant to be a witch hunt. But teachers should be held accountable when a child has been mistreated in the classroom and parents should not be kept in the dark. Teachers should not be able to be hidden and protected behind a code of silence. It's a little too similar to what was done years ago with the Catholic Church.
Parents sending their children to our schools in Newfoundland & Labrador must know they have been placed in a safe, secure environment.
In Sept 2015 my 6 years old daughter, who has autism, was physically assaulted by her student assistant in kindergarten. My daughter is non verbal so thankfully the classroom teacher and another student assistant witnessed it, intervened and have provided witness statements. We came up against the same secrecy issues, and lack of policy. Teachers and school administration told us their hands were tied to report the incident and it was up to us to go to the police. In fact they encouraged and thanked us repeatedly for doing so. I don't mind going to the police in fact it was my right to do so but why not the schools, the board etc.? The secrecy around the individual and access to information is as stated here and it is unfair and protects the wrong people. This person has been charged and is yet to plead....we fought for this and I am not sure that the same result would have happened if we had not taken serious action.
We have to advocate for children's rights
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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.
11 Comments
My son had a bad experience and we were told nothing. It felt like they were protecting the teacher instead of the student. Fix this now.
Ridiculous that parents are kept in the dark about what happens in the classroom. We deserve to know if our kids are safe.
We must ensure our children are comfortable and feel safe in their environment, if not we have failed.
PARENTS NEED ANSWERS. Stop hiding behind privacy policies. If a teacher is a problem the school board needs to be open about it.
This is not meant to be a witch hunt. But teachers should be held accountable when a child has been mistreated in the classroom and parents should not be kept in the dark. Teachers should not be able to be hidden and protected behind a code of silence. It's a little too similar to what was done years ago with the Catholic Church.
Parents sending their children to our schools in Newfoundland & Labrador must know they have been placed in a safe, secure environment.
In Sept 2015 my 6 years old daughter, who has autism, was physically assaulted by her student assistant in kindergarten. My daughter is non verbal so thankfully the classroom teacher and another student assistant witnessed it, intervened and have provided witness statements. We came up against the same secrecy issues, and lack of policy. Teachers and school administration told us their hands were tied to report the incident and it was up to us to go to the police. In fact they encouraged and thanked us repeatedly for doing so. I don't mind going to the police in fact it was my right to do so but why not the schools, the board etc.? The secrecy around the individual and access to information is as stated here and it is unfair and protects the wrong people. This person has been charged and is yet to plead....we fought for this and I am not sure that the same result would have happened if we had not taken serious action.
We have to advocate for children's rights
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My son had a bad experience and we were told nothing. It felt like they were protecting the teacher instead of the student. Fix this now.