The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, wants to close the gaps that allow teachers to move from one position to another without their disciplinary records following them. He also wants all school staff to adopt a code of ethics.
Mr. Drainville tabled a bill on Wednesday which is intended to be a follow-up to the investigation report he commissioned in March regarding the management of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior in schools.
Like a series of journalistic investigations, this report concluded that Quebec schools were ill-equipped to deal with cases of sexual misconduct. Delinquent teachers could thus move from one school to another without being hassled. Their employers had, at best, to rely on Google to try to discover their background, the investigation revealed.
With his bill, the minister wants to abolish “amnesty clauses”. These provide for the removal of certain information from employees’ disciplinary files after a certain time, even if the alleged acts “raise fears for the physical and psychological safety of students.”
Reporting and code of ethics
Mr. Drainville also wants “any person having reasonable grounds to believe that a teacher has committed a serious error in the context of his duties or an act derogatory to the honor or dignity of the teaching function” to have the obligation to “report it without delay”. The minister would have — “finally,” he wrote in a press release — the power to order an investigation into this type of situation.
The legislative text that he submitted to the Salon Bleu also provides for the creation of a code of ethics applicable to all staff in schools, both private and public. “This code should in particular indicate the practices and conduct expected of people called upon to work with minor students, including bus drivers and all other extracurricular service providers,” summarized the minister.
The elected official also wants to oblige school service centers (CSS) and private educational establishments to ensure, before hiring, that a future employee has not previously engaged in behavior “that could reasonably cause fear for the physical or psychological safety of students. This would therefore require “better information sharing” between the CSS, the minister wrote in a press release.
To facilitate the circulation of information, Quebec also wants employees to consent in writing that information about their behavior can circulate within the CSS. CSSs, like private educational establishments, would also be “required to provide the information and documents they hold” on this subject.