At the end of January, we told you about a predatory teacher caught at Canaan SDA High School. He'd been sending inappropriate texts to a teenage student through Instagram and when she told her parents, they reported it to the school's administration. They were also upset that the school didn't seem to be addressing the matter with any urgency.
Well, they got the ministry of education and the media involved and the teacher was placed on administrative leave while the ministry did their investigation.
And today, the BNTU says it is their mandate to ensure that the teacher in this matter is not being taken advantage of. According to the president, while they don't condone predatory behavior, they must ensure that the process is being followed, and parents will have to wait for the outcome.
So then, who's looking out for the students at risk? That's what we asked.
Elena Smith, President, BNTU
"It's a matter that whatever issues they may be facing as it relates to these matters. We have also discussed having a meeting with the principals association of secondary schools and see how we can team up to provide some support for our teachers."
"We have to pay attention to the process in dealing with these matters. So the education rules itself provides a manner in which these matters are dealt with. So it's not just that the principal will automatically send the teacher home and say okay you do this, this is the allegation, go home. You have to follow certain procedures, because a lot of times when these procedures... just like a court. If you miss a step in a procedure, a criminal can get off, because of technicality and its the same thing with us, so you have to follow certain procedures and they have to ensure that there is an investigation going on. Lots of things that has to happen."
"Whenever a recommendation goes to the committee and commission for a decision, it has to be one that would have come about after following that procedure. That's the first thing."
"In terms of our students, of course we feel for them. They are our students as well. For secondary schools, most of them fortunately have counsellors in place and so those counsellors can assist those students. We don't have counsellors that we could share with them. The ministry is able to provide that as well for them and so the parent doesn't have to go and incur expense for that service. The school can provide or the ministry can assist and provide those services for the children."
The Minister of Education told us last week that he was waiting for the report before making a comment. Yesterday morning when we checked back, he said he still hadn't received it.
