Outrageous on so many levels

You won't believe what the psychiatrist said.

September 24, 2008 - Another one of those, "Only in Canada" stories, except you fear that any number of whacko NE states would rule the same way.

A former high school teacher who admitted to sexually abusing eight of his students has been granted day parole, in part because a program for sexual deviants is not offered in English at the penitentiary where he is incarcerated.

Renwick Spence, 79, received a 30-month sentence in December after pleading guilty to indecent assault and gross indecency. His crimes, involving eight boys age 13 to 16, were committed between 1967 and 1981 while he was a biology teacher at Montreal West High School. He retired from teaching in 1984.

After appearing before the National Parole Board recently, two board members determined Spence is ready for release to a halfway house if he follows strict conditions. ...

During the parole hearing, Spence admitted there could have been more victims than the eight former students who filed complaints against him.

One condition of Spence's release is that he follow a treatment program "aimed at addressing his sexual deviancy" when a space becomes available at an unidentified halfway house. His case management team recommended the release in part because a similar treatment program is not available in English at the institution where he is serving time.

If Spence wants to leave the halfway house during his six-month stay, he must make a formal application that Correctional Service Canada will evaluate before the leave is approved.

He is also required to stay away from public parks, swimming pools or anywhere else young people are generally expected to be. He is not allowed to be in the presence of minors unless they are accompanied by an adult who is aware of Spence's sexual deviance.

According to a summary of the hearing, Spence's age and a lack of evidence to indicate he has reoffended since 1981 also contributed to the recommendation for his release. A psychiatrist who evaluated Spence before he was sentenced described him as belonging "to that category of pedophile that after a decade has moved on to other interests."

TT - The victims must feel a whole lot better knowing he has another hobby.

Fredericksburg, VIRGINIA

Canadian investigators find child pornography on his computer.

July 23, 2008 - Richard Doucet, 37, a private school teacher in Montreal, was arrested in May at a hotel in Virginia on allegations he had used an Internet chat room to attempt to lure a minor for sex. After his arrest, police in Montreal carried out a search warrant on Doucet's home on a request from investigators in Virginia and found child pornography.

[The] investigators found a video containing child pornography and about 100 photos depicting children being sexually abused. The head of the sexual assault squad said investigators do not know how the child pornography was obtained, but are still trying to determine its origins.

TT - Amazingly, the Canadian officials are holding off charging him for the child pornography because they are waiting to see what happens in the United States because the internet luring charges in the U.S. are "more serious charges." Go figure.

May 13 - Montreal school copes with news of teacher's arrest
Doucet had been at a teachers' conference in Atlanta but made a side trip to Fredericksburg, Va., where he was arrested. He was charged with attempted indecent liberties, use of an electronic communications device to solicit a juvenile, and two counts of distribution of child pornography.

NEW CHARGES September 5 - Doucet has been charged with more than 200 new counts related to child pornography. The new accusations stem from images found on a compact disc that was seized by police from a motel room.

Det. John Chapman of Dumfries, Va., police said the 36-year-old has been indicted on 230 counts of possessing and reproducing child pornography.

Chapman said each felony carries a five-year mandatory prison sentence, which means Doucet could be sentenced to more than 1,000 years in jail if convicted on all counts.
"Down here in Virginia they take that very seriously," Chapman told The Canadian Press on Friday.

"Virginians are conservative people and they want to protect their kids. It's all about putting these guys away."

Police do not expect more charges.

Pedophile

It's hard to imagine something like this happening in Texas. Nope. Not gonna happen.

It dates back even further. He moved to B.C. from Nova Scotia in the late 1990s, after being accused of touching students while teaching in a Nova Scotia school. The Nova Scotia College of Teachers never forwarded the accusations to B.C. when he applied to teach here. He preyed on his students here, touching their buttocks and stomachs and reading sexually explicit material to them.

The longest term he got was a 10-year firearm ban.

It could be any U.S. state

Thank God, it's Canada. #689

June 9 - Quebec's largest school board has been ordered by the courts to rehire a teacher who is a convicted murderer.

Jean-Alix Miguel, an amateur kickboxer, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1990 after beating his common-law spouse to death. He served seven years in prison. A year later, he was hired as a teacher by the Commission scolaire de Montréal. When the school board found out about his past in 2004, they fired him. The teachers' union filed a grievance on his behalf.

You won't believe the rationale of the arbitrator and the courts. Teacher unions are the same everywhere.

Teacher Misconduct - Canada

Letter from the Ontario (Canada) Catholic Teachers Association to their membership.

June 5, 2008 - A letter to the union's members was entered as evidence Thursday in the trial of F.J. Brennan teacher Mark Baggio.

Dear Colleague,

It has come to our attention that several teachers have been participating in interviews with police investigators recently. If you have not yet done so, you may be called and asked to participate in an interview in the future. For your information you are not obliged in any way to participate in an interview with investigators. If you wish to participate voluntarily, that would be your choice.

You should know that you have the right to end an interview at any time. Your may want to end an interview if you feel like you are not being treated properly and/or if you feel intimidated in any way or for any other reason. Also keep in mind that you as a teacher should not give "opinions" or offer professional "judgments" of your colleagues. You should stick to the facts as they pertain to the case at hand and not offer extraneous information or speculations.

Where interviews occur at work sites, we have a concern that an "interrogation" may be a form of harassment or intimidation. Our employer has a duty to maintain a work environment free from harassment. We have raised this issue with the Human Resources department and we are awaiting their response.

TT - Baggio, 34, is on trial charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation and two counts of corrupting a child in relation to two girls he is alleged to have had sexual relationships with between 2000 and 2005, beginning when the girls were 14. The girls were students of Baggio's at F.J. Brennan Catholic high school. He was arrested in December 2005.

What a romance

Another one of those, "Thank God, it's Canada stories." (Of course, it could easily be Colorado where the outcomes of such cases can be, and frequently are, equally bizarre.)

A "sexually inexperienced" 31-year-old teacher and a "mature" 17-year-old student were described as "a perfect fit for each other." The headline reads: Teacher, student admit romance; Fired by school board, sentenced to probation

Jeremy Grimstead, 31, was, before they fired him, a religion teacher at St. Joseph-Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School when a consensual sexual relationship started in 2006 with a 17-year-old student months before she was expected to graduate. They both denied it. She lied to police but later admitted it happened. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a suspended sentence and probation.

TT - He's 31. Who cares what his lifetime sex batting score is? Truly, the idiocy of calling a sexual relationship between a grown man and a girl half his age, a "romance" is worthy of a Harlequin Romance writer-wanna-be. Maybe it's an audition by the headline writer. Harlequin books are published by the same company that owns the Toronto Star.

Absurdity

There are some stories so absurd they deserve being remembered.

April 30, 2008 - In Canada, a father is asking the court to allow his younger daughter to live with him in the same townhouse where she and another daughter killed their mother. The man told a court today he didn't see any problems with her showering and taking a bath in the same tub where she and her older sister drowned their mother and his ex-wife more than five years ago.

The two girls were 16 and 15 when they drowned their 43-year-old alcoholic mother on the night of Jan. 18, 2003. They got away with it for a year before a friend revealed the plot to police. It had even been discussed on the Internet prior to the murder. The two sisters were sentenced to the maximum of 10 years in prison allowed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

He told the court how his daughter's education has "suffered tremendously" since being sent to the federal prison last year because she's only allowed to take one university course instead of the four or five she needs to take in order to pursue a university degree.

He revealed his daughter wants to study pyschology and philosophy and eventually attend teacher's college once she finishes her sentence.
---------------
TT - It's Canada so the likelihood of her teaching is, uh, 50 -50. And, should she be caught murdering someone else, if she's a teacher, her name will, most likely, never be publicly revealed since the teacher discipline records in Canada frequently substitute case numbers. To protect their privacy.

Teacher Discipline

The Canadian system of self-regulation of teachers has been pointed to as a model for U.S. teacher discipline. The College of Teachers has that responsibility. However, their performance leaves a lot to be desired, especially their transparency

Jan 14, 2008 - A teacher was barred from teaching for 50 years after he admitted he might be a pedophile, was convicted of assaulting his common-law partner and son, and accused of threatening his psychiatrist and was ordered not to possess weapons.

That is the toughest penalty the College of Teachers has ever given.

However, the B.C. College of Teachers does not name him.

The summary says the man "was a teacher-on-call when he made statements that he may be a pedophile, that he viewed child pornography and that he had sexual fantasies and thoughts that involved children."
It gives no indication of where he worked in B.C. or whether he was in public or independent schools.

As a former council member said, "If the college felt that this teacher was dangerous enough to ban him for 50 years, the college also understood that his past might have included abuse," she said in an e-mail. "By agreeing to non-publication, the college has kept secrets firmly behind closed doors."

TT - Teacher discpline decisions by the College of Teachers in British Columbia are online.

Some Consent Resolution Agreement reasons for not releasing names.
"The Committee rescinded the citation and were satisfied that publication would cause grievous harm to the Member's psychological condition."
" The Preliminary Investigation Sub-Committee agreed to withhold her name from publication due to her health status."
"The Committee determined that publication of the Member's name be withheld as publication would cause grievous harm to the Member and other parties."
"On October 1, 2007, the Preliminary Investigation Sub-Committee agreed that the citation be rescinded and publication of the Member's name be withheld due to his frail state of health and efforts to pursue treatment for same."
Eleven of the agreements give names; 19 don't.

In November 2007, a former B.C. College of Teachers council member said the decisions amount to "a backroom deal -- a handshake. The discipline process has degenerated into a non-discipline process." LINK (Look at the makeup of the committee that adjudicates most cases.)

The Ontario College of Teachers idea of governing themselves is agreeing that they won't disclose the teachers' names. LINK

Ontario College of Teachers publishes hearings and decisions in their monthly newsletter, Professionally Speaking under Govering Ourselves. Current Issue link and, in the issue, Hearings link Past Issues can be found at Archives

Canadian Teacher Discipline

Decisions amount to "a backroom deal -- a handshake. The discipline process has degenerated into a non-discipline process." - a former B.C. College of Teachers council member

Nov 13, 2007 - Cathy Abraham, who was on the college's governing council in 2003-04 by government appointment, on the decision not to discipline teachers.

"They're not disciplining them and therefore they don't have to publish their names on the registry," said Cathy Abraham, who was on the college's governing council in 2003-04 by government appointment.

Carl Ratsoy, a teacher who served on council as an elected member and later as a government appointee until 2004, said the decisions amount to "a backroom deal -- a handshake. The discipline process has degenerated into a non-discipline process."

And here is how the cases are decided.

While declining to comment on individual cases, [College spokesman Richard] Walker said the three-person committee that adjudicates almost every case that lands before the college makes decisions in the best interests of students.

The members this year are two retired teacher-union leaders, Jim Gill and John Grain, and lawyer Tim Dunford, who represents parents.

That committee handles most discipline through "consent resolution agreements." If those agreements include a reprimand, a suspension or a certificate cancellation, they are considered discipline. Of 29 agreements signed in recent years, 18 did not include discipline.

The college does not release details of those agreements and they are not obtainable through freedom-of-information legislation. In some cases, the agreement specifies what details may be made public.

TT - This is how educators protect students in Canada. What kind of idiots would allow cases to be examined union leaders who outnumber the parent representative?

The sad thing is that there is little difference in how the educational establishment protects teachers in the U.S. With closed door hearings, negotiated agreements that are confidential and even private agreement on what details will be available to public scrutiny.

Governing Themselves

Nov 5 - The Ontario College of Teachers (Canada) is going to court to to find out whether three dozen teachers who have been disciplined for misconduct but never identified publicly must now be named on a new online registry of disciplined educators.

Although dozens of B.C. educators have been disciplined for misconduct but never identified, [College spokesman Richard] Walker said a quick count suggests about 35 are still college members and thus certified to teach in B.C. public and independent schools. They had previously been promised anonymity because the college said it was not in the public interest to identify them.
Their names were communicated to B.C. boards of education and other hiring authorities, Walker noted.

In its petition to the court, the college does not take a position on whether the 35 teachers should be identified, saying only that it doesn't want to include their names and possibly cause them "irreparable harm" if that is not the law's intention.

TT - Usually it is the party alleging harm who takes a case to court.

Traditionally, the College of Teachers has listed teacher discipline actions in their monthly Professionally Speaking, in a section called, GOVERNING OURSELVES. By their own admission, four out of five complaints are not referred to the Discipline Committee but are dismissed or resolved by other means. Where names are listed, it is because as part of the resolution, the educator agreed to be listed in public. (See Dispute Resolution)

Those who agree to having their name listed can be found in the Public Register. Interestingly, the College of Teachers refers to students grading their teachers as "cyberbulling" in a recent poll. The report calls chatrooms "bashboards" (pg 17.)

They note that cyber-bullying students may use the Internet in attempt to intimidate a teacher. (footnote pg 19) for which (Table 6-4b) a large number of teachers think cyber-bullying should be reported to police.

School of Secrets

Oct 29, 2007 - A Canadian filmmaker who can sympathize with the victims of Tom Ellison, the recently-sentenced teacher who lead Quest, an outdoor experience program, at Vancouver High School, has made a documentary to record the testimony of his victims.

The film is called, "School of Secrets."

Many of the women in the film still have a hard time coping the confusion of what happened decades earlier.

The recollection of the teenage excitement and adrenaline they felt during their first sexual experience with the "dreamy" teacher is now combined with the grown-up knowledge that what Ellison was doing was wrong."

These women have struggled, that's for sure," [filmaker Melanie] Wood said. "They went into it, maybe at the beginning not quite knowing what they were getting into but they certainly didn't say no at the time. So they feel like it was partly their fault. I think that's been damaging for them."

As a teenage girl, you think you're in control of your life, but in this case it's a question of power and authority, and that line shouldn't have been crossed. It really wasn't their decision to make, but they felt it was.

Wood knows because she, too, had a sexual relationship with a teacher when she was young.

The film will air on CBC Newsworld this week. Interview with Wood.

Wierd

In another one of those, thank-God-we-are-not stories.

Montreal's largest school board has been ordered to rehire a teacher who had been fired for failing to disclose to the board that he had killed his wife in 1990.

Jean-Alix Miguel had pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

In 1998, the Commission scolaire de Montréal hired him to teach electronics to adults at a construction trade school in Montreal's east end. The board fired him in 2004 when it learned about his criminal record, something he had not told the board about when he was hired.

An arbitrator later ruled that Miguel's dismissal violated Quebec's charter of rights, because his crime did not in any way relate to his work.

ON THE OTHER HAND,

In Massachusetts, a health teacher convicted for his fifth drunk driving offense and sentenced to jail for 60 days can't be fired either because of the same logic.

[His] employment as a teacher is not in jeopardy under the school department’s behavior codes because the alleged actions did not endanger any students or co-workers and the incident reportedly occurred outside the scope of his professional duties.

Yeah. And we have some wonderful arbitration decisions, too.

A Christmas Story - in (thank God) Canada - and not here

This was outrageous at Christmas. It's gone past that to farcial.

A Christmas Story - Ex-teacher freed for Christmas

Dec 23, 3006 - Kristian Coulombe, 33, was found guilty of five charges each of sexual assault and sexual exploitation and is set for sentencing February 7th. In the meantime, a judge allowed him to go free to be with his family until his sentencing date.

The family portrait was touching.

Justice James Turnbull noted Coulombe adhered to his bail terms after he was charged, respected the court process and has lots of family support. Most of all, he has a young family, including an infant.

"He has a three-year-old son ... and it is immediately before Christmas, a magical time for children," Turnbull said in letting Coulombe out, but his bail conditions continue.

The crime? Coulombe was found guilty of sexual acts with teenage girls, including touching, oral sex, a sexual threesome with a 15- and 16-year-old, and intercourse with a 14-year-old when he was in a position of trust and authority as a teacher

Now go back and read what the Justice Turnbull said about Coulombe at the conclusion of the trial.

Just the kind of person you want home for the holidays, right?

Update May 4 - Coulombe was sentenced to 4 years in prison. His teaching certificate was suspended. The reason his certificate has been suspended is because he hasn't paid his membership fees. If he pays the fees, he could get his certificate restored.

The Ontario College of Teachers will not say because of privacy legislation, whether an investigation is underway or whether a disciplinary hearing is expected. Coulombe appealed his conviction to the Ontario Court of Appeal and is out on 40 thousand dollars bail. The appeal could take 3 years to complete.

APPEAL DISMISSED April 28, 208 - On Friday an Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto dismissed his appeal. He will do the time. The ultimate joke is that he will be eligible for full parole after serving one-third of his sentence - in August of next year - and for statutory release after two-thirds, at the end of 2010. He could make day parole in eight months.

One victim told the Reformer Friday that the "biggest challenge" of the past three years has been "the lack of support in the community" for herself and the other four women.

"I’m a victim, it happened, and it’s finally over," she said. "We told the truth. We told how it happened.

He could face a tough time behind bars and be targeted by other inmates because of the nature of his offences, prison officials have warned. TT- Apparently he won't have "rock star" status in the pen.

Traded like hockey cards - CANADA

Barrie, Canada - At the trial of David Carswell, 54, of Midhurst, a teacher at the Ferndale Woods Elementary School, a police detective testified that he recognized some of the images of children who were "coveted" collector items on the teacher's computer.

"For example, I've seen this particular girl before -- there might be about 20 images of her out there. It's called a series," Schambers said.

"I don't mean to minimize it, but they trade them just like hockey cards."

Carswell was one of 40 people in Ontario who were found to have bought child pornography online.