Latest news with #KarlaBernard
CBC
13-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Proposed bill would require P.E.I. school boards to report sexual misconduct complaints
P.E.I.'s Green Party has introduced legislation that would require school boards on the Island to report complaints of sexual misconduct to the province's Education and Early Years Department. If the bill passes, both the Public Schools Branch and the French-language school board would have to provide the number of allegations to the education minister on an annual basis. The reports would not have to include the identifying information of anyone involved in the complaint. Karla Bernard, the Greens' interim leader, tabled the bill for first reading Tuesday after using her time during question period to ask the governing Progressive Conservatives if they'd support it. "[I] can't change what was done in the past, but we can move forward," P.E.I. Education Minister Robin Croucher said in response. "Absolutely, I think we can support your bill." The Greens introduced a similar amendment five years ago in light of the case of Roger Jabbour, the former band teacher at Colonel Gray High School who had been convicted in 2018 of sexually touching three female students. In 2020, Bernard put forward a proposed amendment to the province's Education Act that would require school boards to report annually on the number of sexual misconduct complaints. At the province's insistence, that amendment was turned into an order to be brought forward by then-education minister Brad Trivers, but that never happened. On Tuesday, Bernard said her party was able to put together a similar amendment in the wake of the case of former substitute teacher Matthew Alan Craswell. Craswell, 40, pleaded guilty on April 29 to sexual interference in a case involving an elementary student at Stratford's Glen Stewart Primary School in the spring of 2024. He was first arrested last summer on an unrelated charge of possession and distribution of child pornography, and RCMP learned of the Glen Stewart incident during their investigation. It was later revealed that another complaint of sexual touching had been made about Craswell's actions while he was teaching at Charlottetown's West Kent Elementary in 2023. In neither of the primary school complaints were police or Child Protective Services contacted, because school officials deemed Craswell's actions to be non-sexually motivated. The province has ordered a third-party review of the PSB's handling of the case that will be conducted by former P.E.I. chief justice David Jenkins. 'Leave school officials out of it' Bernard said Tuesday that while her bill wouldn't have prevented the Craswell incidents, it would be an important step in holding school officials accountable. "It's the very start of a centralized reporting mechanism, which is exactly what was identified as something that's been missing in P.E.I.," she said. "If there's been a complaint with a specific person named, they'll be able to see if there's been more than one… [and] if there's any trends that's happening." WATCH | Questions raised around 2020 pledge to provide transparency around misconduct complaints in schools: Questions raised around 2020 pledge to provide transparency around misconduct complaints in schools 4 days ago Duration 2:28 Back in 2020, after a P.E.I. high school band teacher was convicted of sexually touching three female students, the PEI government said it would start requiring school boards to report annually on the number of sexual misconduct complaints. A directive requiring that was drafted but never put in place. Interim Green Leader Karla Bernard (shown) wants to know why. CBC's Kerry Campbell reports. The bill will be called for a second reading on Wednesday after the Official Opposition Liberals gave Bernard some of their time in the legislature to introduce it on Tuesday. Premier Rob Lantz also indicated that he would likely support the amendment. Bernard also urged the government to create an independent body to review annual reports submitted by the school agencies, something that experts have said is a best practice. "In a lot of cases, it seems we're asking [school administrators] to be investigators, and that's just not their skill set. They're not trained to do that, nor is it a part of their job," she said.
CBC
10-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
PCs broke 2020 promise to require P.E.I. school boards to report sexual misconduct: Greens
Social Sharing Questions were raised in the P.E.I. legislature Friday about why the government didn't follow through on a commitment it made five years ago to keep better tabs on sexual misconduct in Island schools. The Progressive Conservatives made that commitment in 2020 in light of the case of Roger Jabbour, the former band teacher at Colonel Gray High School who had been convicted in 2018 of sexually touching three female students. After the case had made its way through the court, Green MLA Karla Bernard put forward a proposed amendment to the Education Act to require school boards to report annually on the number of sexual misconduct complaints. At the province's insistence, that amendment was turned into an order to be brought forward by then-education minister Brad Trivers. That never happened, Bernard pointed out on Friday in the legislature. She said it's something that might have prevented an April 2024 case of sexual interference that took place in a Stratford elementary school. "To this day, we continue to experience the consequences of that inaction," Bernard said, in a question directed at P.E.I. Education Minister Robin Croucher, who took over the cabinet post in February. "Would you agree that Islanders' skepticism regarding this government's commitment to children's safety is well-deserved?" WATCH | Questions raised around 2020 pledge to provide transparency around misconduct complaints in schools: Questions raised around 2020 pledge to provide transparency around misconduct complaints in schools 3 hours ago Duration 2:28 Back in 2020, after a P.E.I. high school band teacher was convicted of sexually touching three female students, the PEI government said it would start requiring school boards to report annually on the number of sexual misconduct complaints. A directive requiring that was drafted but never put in place. Interim Green Leader Karla Bernard (shown) wants to know why. CBC's Kerry Campbell reports. Croucher suggested Bernard's question could be answered by the third-party review he has ordered of Public Schools Branch policies in light of the case of Matthew Alan Craswell, the former substitute teacher who pleaded guilty on April 29 to sexual interference involving an elementary student at Stratford's Glen Stewart Primary School. "I would agree that the public is looking for some answers and some leadership on this," Croucher said in the legislature. "I assure you that we have the very best person available in the province of Prince Edward Island to conduct the review into these questions." Province 'uncomfortable' with amendment In Jabbour's case, as in Craswell's, complaints were made to education authorities — who initially concluded the incidents were not sexual in nature. In 2020, Bernard and the Greens wrote up an amendment to the Education Act that would have required school boards to disclose annually how many complaints of sexual misconduct had been made, and whether they were found to be substantiated or unsubstantiated. "Government was very uncomfortable with this amendment," Bernard said after question period Friday. "They felt as though disclosing numbers would somehow identify students, and so the huge pushback was about confidentiality, which was addressed in the amendment." In the fall of 2021 — right around the time the first data about complaints was supposed to have been published — hundreds of students took to the streets to protest that their concerns about sexual harassment in schools weren't being taken seriously. This week, Bernard said publishing a number would have provided some measure of accountability — and might have flagged the first reported incident against Craswell at Charlottetown's West Kent Elementary School in 2023, the year before the Glen Stewart case. "That would have been a very small step towards ensuring that these issues aren't swept under the rug," Bernard said. "It's not the answer, that's for sure. We still need a centralized mechanism for recording these." Identifying patterns P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch said it has adopted a centralized tracking system for staff complaints over the last school year. Some experts, however, say that reporting system could go a step further in ensuring students' safety. WATCH | Independent body needed to collect and track reports of wrongdoing, child protection advocate says: Independent body needed to collect and track reports of wrongdoing, child protection advocate says 1 day ago Duration 7:05 P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is under intense scrutiny over a substitute teacher who continued teaching after two separate incidents at Island schools. The PSB says it connected them only after Matthew Craswell's arrest on other charges. Craswell has now pleaded guilty to child porn and sexual touching charges. Noni Classen, the director of education and support services for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, speaks to CBC's Louise Martin about the issues involved. Noni Classen, director of education and support services for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said such a system needs to be independent of both the government and the Public Schools Branch. She said that would ensure experts could identify patterns of behaviour, something that school administrators aren't trained to do. "What we need to have in place are systems that pick up these kinds of issues in case it is something nefarious at play [so] that there's a record of it and it's landing on individuals who have expertise," Classen told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin this week. "Sometimes that can't happen at a school level because if an individual moves and goes to a different school… there isn't a capability to be able to put the reports together because it's not centralized."
CBC
09-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Questions raised around 2020 pledge to provide transparency around misconduct complaints in schools
Back in 2020, after a P.E.I. high school band teacher was convicted of sexually touching three female students, the PEI government said it would start requiring school boards to report annually on the number of sexual misconduct complaints. A directive requiring that was drafted but never put in place. Interim Green Leader Karla Bernard (shown) wants to know why. CBC's Kerry Campbell reports.
CBC
08-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Opposition wants to know why PSB didn't pass reports of inappropriate touching to police
Social Sharing The case of a former substitute teacher's sex crimes was once again the focus of debate in the P.E.I. Legislature Wednesday. Questions from both opposition parties centred around the issue of duty to report, which is the legal obligation for anyone to report a suspected case of child abuse to authorities as soon as possible. It's a provision of P.E.I.'s Child, Youth and Family Services Act, and similar phrasing exists in the province's Education Act. Green and Liberal MLAs said in the house Wednesday that in the case of incidents involving Matthew Alan Craswell, the Public Schools Branch didn't follow the law. "Information was brought to our education leaders within the PSB but duty to report was not followed, a clear contravention of the act," interim Green Leader Karla Bernard said in a question directed at Barb Ramsay, the minister responsible for child protection in the province. "Complaints suggesting possible sexual assault were made to a director within your government. The legal duty to report was not followed. What consequences will you be employing to address this serious issue?" Ramsay replied that the director of child protection was contacted by the RCMP in August 2024, after police had already laid criminal charges against Craswell. WATCH | P.E.I. MLAs ask questions about when and why officials must report cases of suspected wrongdoing: P.E.I. MLAs ask questions about when and why officials must report cases of suspected wrongdoing 3 hours ago Duration 3:49 P.E.I. has a legislated 'duty to report' requiring anyone with reasonable grounds to suspect a child is being abused to report that to the director of child protection or police as soon as possible. That didn't happen in the case of a substitute teacher who pleaded guilty last week to sexual interference in an incident involve an Island primary school student. As CBC's Kerry Campbell reports, opposition parties want to know why. Last week, the 40-year-old Craswell pleaded guilty to sexual interference in a case involving an elementary student at Stratford's Glen Stewart Primary. He was first arrested and charged last summer with possession and distribution of child pornography after the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children flagged his internet activity. New information came to light during the RCMP investigation, details of which were shared in court last week as Craswell pleaded guilty to four charges. CBC News is aware of one other incident involving a student at an unidentified Charlottetown elementary school in June 2023, but Craswell faces no charges in relation to that. Court documents indicate school officials were made aware of both reports of suspected sexual touching, but police were not contacted in either case. The Public Schools Branch has said it did its own investigation into the reports and concluded, incorrectly, that the incidents were not sexual in nature. That's why authorities were not told, the education agency said. Craswell continued to work in schools with older children as late as the spring of 2024, after the Public Schools Branch was informed. 'Reasonable grounds' up for debate The Craswell case has led the province to order a third-party review into relevant Public Schools Branch policies and procedures that will be headed up by former P.E.I. chief justice David Jenkins. That inquiry is scheduled to begin June 2. Public Schools Branch speaks after substitute teacher's sexual touching revealed 5 hours ago Duration 9:47 Public Schools Branch Director Tracy Beaulieu tells the CBC's Nicola MacLeod what steps were taken when Matthew Craswell's inappropriate touching of students was brought forward, and why officials did not feel the need to contact police. The issue of whether the schools branch had a duty to report the incidents involving Craswell may come down to the terminology of the act. It states that someone must have "reasonable grounds to suspect a child requires protection." Bernard, who worked as a school counsellor earlier in her career, argued Wednesday that the PSB doesn't have the latitude to conduct its own investigations under the law. "If a child comes and discloses that to you, you're not really the judge and jury there. You call child protection or the police and report that right away," she said. "There was a law broken here — and as a result harm against children was able to continue in the school system."
