CSSDM suspends 11 teachers at Bedford
The CSSDM has suspended eleven teachers at Bedford School, where a journalist’s inquiry turned up the initial evidence of a toxic climate.
Although the story involves a bullying clique that imposed outdated ideas about student discipline, refused to accept current concepts like learning difficulties and ADHD, and didn’t want to teach science or sex ed, most comments I see lean hard on the fact that the teachers, or most of them, were from a majority Muslim country – although nobody has claimed they were proselytizing to the students.
Jean‑François Roberge, who glories in the title ministre responsible de la Laïcité, even blames religious values, although I suspect it’s quite easy to have old‑fashioned ideas about education without religion being the reason. But in Quebec, it’s probably natural to equate old‑school educational methods with religion, since they were synonymous here for so long. Whatever Roberge says, most of what’s reported at Bedford School isn’t religious values.
JaneyB 11:18 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
It sounds a bit more than old-fashioned values though…eg: intimidation, humiliation, and physical violence. If that’s (still) normal for Muslim countries (or any of the old countries including France), then teachers who want to replicate that here are going to face censure – as they should, imo. Good for the press for bringing this to light; what a surprisingly quick response from CSSDM.
Kate 11:25 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
I totally agree that their methods were bad and the situation had to end. But I’m not buying that these methods were based on Muslim values, any more than the harsh treatment my parents reported from their teachers (nuns and brothers, for the most part, in public schools in Montreal) had anything to do with Christian values.
Some societies believe in harsh treatment for kids with various kinds of troubles. The Bible has “spare the rod and spoil the child” (Proverbs 13:24, according to Google) but I don’t know what, if anything, the Quran has to say about it.* I’m simply suspicious of the tendency to dogpile on Islam.
My father had a story about a teacher he admired, a Christian Brother, who grabbed a classmate by the shirt front and dangled him outside the second-floor window while haranguing him about some small infraction in class. And that was typical. In grade school myself, we were warned about the strap (I don’t think anyone actually received it in my time) and certain teachers were known to fling chalk or board erasers at kids for chatting or misbehaving in class. I only saw this happen a couple of times. I don’t think this could be blamed on Christianity.
*Later, I consulted Ali at the fruiterie, who often reads the Quran between customers. He assures me there’s no equivalent to “spare the rod and spoil the child” in Islam, but it does instruct Muslims to teach their kids the elements of the religion.
carswell 11:44 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
I unfortunately spent my high school years in small town Oklahoma. Paddling male students was common. The shop teacher, also the football coach, had a “board of education” until he broke a student’s hip using it. The school took away his paddle but I don’t believe he suffered any other repercussions.
jeather 12:24 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
I finished the report: the only claims about religion were that there were a lof of Muslim teachers and there may have been some favoritism about how they decided among themselves who would request specific days off. And I suppose some thought that maybe the refusal to teach some subjects was related to this — but that included science and music, not just sex ed. (Note: I am told that sex ed is fairly regularly just left out of the curriculum, often due to parental pressure.)
The most iinteresting part really is how many levels of dysfunction there are in the education system, and how hard it is to actually do anything to teachers. Some excerpts:
1. Sans faire un portrait exhaustif des divers processus, il faut savoir qu’il existe différents types d’employés au CSSDM. Il y a d’abord les employés réguliers et les non réguliers. Une fois qu’un enseignant avec brevet obtient un emploi à statut régulier, aucune évaluation de rendement n’est prévue pour la suite de sa carrière.
7. Dans le cas du MEQ, en ce qui concerne l’autorisation d’enseigner, s’il existe bel et bien un recours sur l’autorisation d’enseigner par l’article 26 de la LIP pour les enseignants qui commettent une faute grave dans l’exercice de leurs fonctions ou un acte dérogatoire à la profession enseignante, il n’existe pas de processus prévu pour évaluer la compétence d’un enseignant. En effet, une fois que l’autorisation d’enseigner est accordée à un individu, seul le processus prévu à l’article 26 de la LIP ou l’émergence d’antécédents judiciaires peuvent faire en sorte de remettre en question cette autorisation,
Kate 13:06 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
Thank you for going through the report and finding those key sections, jeather.
So once a teacher has permanence, it’s hard to get rid of them.
jeather 13:19 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
I can’t say that I recommend reading the report, but I will say it was fascinating and informative and very long.
Yes, essentially once you have a brevet, it’s forever, and once you have permanence you can’t be made to leave a school. (Note that some of this is specific to the union rules, though I assume it is much the same for all teachers whichever union.) There’s no professional order and no real follow up on continuing education requirements.
Ian 17:28 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
I know the EMSB has a similar arrangement.