College of Teachers wants to hear from you!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by M. Whinton on January 27, 2012 at 9:00pm

 I'd have two suggestions. 1. When someone makes a complaint their name and a summary of the complaint should also be made public. This will make it easier to identify chronic abusers who submit numerous complaints. 2. If the complainant has made a false complaint or is abusing the process they should face a fine and their name listed. The public shouldn't have to pay for people who abuse these types of processes. This would trim the complaints down considerably if the complainant knew they faced  serious consequences for making unfounded allegations. Everyone should think long and hard before filing any type of complaint.

Permalink Reply by Marion on January 28, 2012 at 11:43am

Lodging a complaint is a long process, and I think the average person would be intimidated by the current process.  The college has protection in place for "vexious" complaints.  Publishing the complaintant names would be a breech of children's privacy in many cases.  I am more concerned with the lack of action of the college if they feel the school board has  intervened appropriately for discipline or incompentcy issues.  The college sets the standard for teacher professionalism, school boards can't hire someone unless they meet the college certification.  The college should be monitoring more "teaching practice" concerns.  It is absolutely mind boggling that criminal activity of teachers has become the college's responsibility.  The justice system should be dealing with many of these issues, and once a teacher is convicted of any crime, the loss of their certification should be automatic.  The College would still have to deal with incidents that did not meet the standard of criminality, but reviewing the college discipline hearings/dispute resolution leads parents to believe that there are so many "crimes" being brought to the college attention, they can't focus on regulating teaching practice.      

Permalink Reply by nancy pylypczak on February 29, 2012 at 2:24pm

How many complaints actually are addressed and of those how many are unfounded? There must be a screening process in place.

I am not sure if all the actual standards of practice are clearly understood by all stakeholders. Would this help people in knowing what a legitimate complaint might look like?

Permalink Reply by Tracey Tebbenham on January 28, 2012 at 11:07am

Do they really want to hear from us? Hmm...

My family has just recently gone through the complaints process at our son's school relating to the general incompetency of our son's teacher. I'm not sure if there is space in this forum for my comments!

However, as this pertains to the College of Teachers and how it operates in association with school boards and individual schools I would have to say that at no time during our issue were we given the suggestion to contact the College. We were not made aware of the investigative process through which the College operates in the case of a teacher complaint, which left us feeling very separated from what was going on behind the "scenes". While I understand that there are confidentiality considerations, we as parents of a child who was directed affected by what was happening (we actually had to have him move classes to escape the repercussions of our complaints) we feel that we were deliberately left in the dark, at times to protect the teacher and the board.

As a result of our complaint and those of other parents, this teacher was eventually moved to another school (which I'm told is referred to as "passing the trash") which, interestingly, is just one of many "moves" this teacher has made over her teaching career. It disturbs me immensely that the schools and board are so easily kept from removing these teachers from the profession. 

It says above that the Investigations Committees are supposed to complete the investigative process in 3 months but I know from our experience that this teacher came to our school with problems from other schools and in our case the process dragged out over the course of 2 school years only to result in a another move.

To say the least, we are skeptical that the College has the best interests of children and families in mind.

Permalink Reply by nancy pylypczak on February 29, 2012 at 2:37pm

How many teachers are brought forth to the college for incompetency? How many teachers have actually lost their position for not meeting with one or more of the standards?

Permalink Reply by Annie Kidder on January 28, 2012 at 4:59pm

People are already bringing up interesting issues:

• At what point should the public know the name of the teacher? (If teachers' names were made public when there was an investigation in process, what would that do to teachers who were totally cleared?) (But on the other hand, does the public have a right to know if a teacher has restrictions on his/her license?)
• Should the complainant be named? (definitely brings up issues of children's privacy, but how do you stop abusers of the system)
• Do parents know enough about the College of Teachers and how it works?
• Does the focus on borderline or actual criminal behaviour miss the point? What about competence?
• School boards are responsible for hiring and firing teachers, not the College of Teachers, should they be able to access a different level of information than the general public?

It's very important to remember too, that we're talking about a very very small percentage of teachers here. 

Permalink Reply by Tracey Tebbenham on January 30, 2012 at 9:52am

I agree with Ms. Kidder that this topic brings many interesting issues to the forefront. I would just like to comment on her last remark regarding the fact that we are discussing a very small percentage of teachers. 

If you consider a teacher who, like in our case, has been in the system for upwards of 20 years you are talking about hundreds of children who have been affected by their incompetence and the ramifications of that are multifold. 

Sorry to belabour this but as parents, it is unbelievably frustrating and a bit frightening to send your children to school each day with certain values and teachings only to have to them undone by the end of the day. You're left with a child who is confused, angry, and eventually disenchanted with learning, mistrustful of teachers and falling behind.

Argh!!!

Permalink Reply by Gay Stephenson on February 6, 2012 at 5:47pm

Thanks for explaining your point so thoroughly. It's a very thoughtful one... and important perspective for us all to consider.

Permalink Reply by M. Whinton on February 4, 2012 at 7:35pm

Regarding should the complainant be named I would add that society is moving quickly whether it likes it or not to a more transparent approach to sending and receiving information. Take for example the recent announcement that election results in the east can be announced prior to polls closing in the west. There was very little discussion about prior to the announcement - it just "occurred" since it cannot be stopped. The same is true for crimes teachers are charged with. Because of Facebook (2 billion members) a recent case in Cambridge where a teacher was charged broadcast to thousands within hours and most interested parties new the details well before the main stream media released the name.

Permalink Reply by CC Stohrer on February 5, 2012 at 7:52pm

My spouse is a teacher so I've learned a lot more about OCT than most parents would.

One issue I have been concerned about is when I cannot find a particular teacher on the List of Teachers. Why are some teachers permitted to use other surnames at Public Schools but not ones that would make them searchable on OCT? I have been trying to find my child's teacher on OCT and have had no luck. This is concerning.

Permalink Reply by M. Whinton on February 5, 2012 at 10:03pm

They must use their given surname whenever and wherever they work. The OCT database for names is very good - if your child's teacher isn't listed by their name then it is very likely that the spelling of the name is incorrect or that the person is in fact not a certified teacher. A quick chat with the principal will likely get you the answers you are looking for.

Permalink Reply by CC Stohrer on February 6, 2012 at 5:35pm

Thank you for your answer! :)

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