Two days ago the Vancouver Sun reported on a parent’s 3 year wait to have her misconduct complaint about a principal and vice-principal thrown out. The story describes the difficulties parents experience in filing complaints against school personnel.
The complaining parent, Leanne Dufour, said
It’s a joke. It’s all about protecting teachers and principals. None of it is about protecting students.”
Today, the front page of the Wednesday Vancouver Sun has an exclusive story by education reporter, Janet Steffenhagen, on another parent’s woes. This parent is being sued for defamation because of harsh words he used against a school board chairman. Apparently, the school board did not report a teacher’s predatory behavior to the “BC College of Teachers–as required by law–after it disciplined him on three occasions, starting in 1995…again in 1997 and 2000.”
The teacher was eventually stripped of his teaching certificate in 2004. The parent, Greg Cross of Abbotsford, is concerned about the lag and the story says:
Cross says the school district’s failure to report may have placed more young girls at risk.
This defamation case against the parent is now before the Supreme Court of BC.
As an important postcript to these two related education stories it is important to note the important role freedom-of-information provisions contribute to these stories.
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