Opinion: Bill 35 — vengeance politics
In March, Bill 35 — The Education Administration Amendment Act — was introduced by the minister of education.
A month later, it passed committee hearings. No one would disagree that every effort should be made to deter teachers’ preying on children, but this legislation looks like more about getting even than solving a problem.
People should not be duped into believing that another governmental agency will solve a sexual predator problem, and certainly not one which pretends to address other supposed educational problems in one fell swoop. When one considers the bill in context and totality it begins to look like just one more attempt by a bitter government to undermine public education.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP) should be applauded for continuing to press for action which might prevent further cases. There is no group of people who understand better the lifelong disastrous consequences of the sexual abuse of children for the survivors, their families and society in general.
However, in their wholesale support of this bill they are risking alienating their biggest and most important allies in this battle —teachers and the Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS). Perhaps unwittingly, they are also putting their faith in a government which cannot be trusted when it comes to revealing their real educational agendas. If public transparency is the answer, it is readily available.
With one change in Child and Family Services Act, governments could publicize all teachers whose names are on the child abuse registry as a result of their criminal convictions or confessions. Currently, school boards, can problematically only access the registry with the person’s consent. Surely MTS is unlikely to object to the consent clause’s removal.
In fact, there should exist a national registry of this type which is publicly accessible. The public does have a right to know who and where they are, and whether those people are teachers or other school people who have been, or should be, denied access to children. However, there is an additional problem with the argument that public knowledge will somehow prevent child abuse.
While publicity may be a deterrent for some potential abusers, CCCP studies has shown that it is not sufficient for most sexual predators who repeatedly admit that the fear of being caught was not enough to stop them. The proclivity to abuse is more deep-seated and complex than that. The reliance on a teacher registry is obviously not enough, and most teachers would be just too happy to be part of any solution rather than be considered the source of the problem.
Teaching is already probably the most heavily supervised and regulated profession we know. Certified teachers who are not prepared to give registry consent or submit to criminal records checks are simply not hired. Most teachers, in addition to regularly debating the effectiveness of their efforts, are subject to annual evaluations by their principals. In addition, they may at any time be asked to explain and justify their actions and behaviours to superintendents, trustees, parents, and other community members. In my experience these checks are as effective as any I know.
As for incompetence and misconduct worthy of public discipline being included in a bill to expose sexual predators, this demonstrates either gross misunderstanding or an unprecedented attack on teachers and public education.
Briefly, competence involves matters as diverse as curriculum knowledge, classroom management, appropriate discipline, student, parent and collegial relationships, and ability to teach each child in a way that they can achieve and succeed. It should be judged by people familiar with the context of schools and practices of teaching.
Misconduct is violating the behavioural norms and mores of the day in a world where there is no consensus on what is acceptable and appropriate for teacher to do. Surely it is not in the public interest to leave teachers vulnerable to attacks from the potentially aggrieved or vindictive.
Our current government is obviously still smarting from the crushing defeat of Bill 64, their signature attempt to dismantle the public school system. Bill 35 continues to follow the script of the extreme American right by blaming teachers, their unions, their administrators, and employers for “drummed up” failures and using those as excuses for defunding education. By the way, the script also includes P3s and high-stakes tests, further unsubstantiated ideology.
Bill 35 itself does not pass the test of public scrutiny and transparency. But, vengeance politics works. Not a peep was heard from principals, superintendents and trustees!
John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba.
