With twin investigations continuing into Charles Hays charges, students are the main focus of School District 52

While the shock of two separate charges over alleged offences by teachers continue to echo around the Charles Hays School community and across the city for that matter, the School District and the teachers’ union are taking steps to focus on the students.

While acknowledging the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise in a court of law, both examined the fall out from the charges that have devastated the educational community across the city.

The continuing investigations and a review of measures that have been put in place by the District, were the focus of a front page story in Thursday’s Daily News.

STUDENTS ARE DISTRICT’S TOP PRIORITY FOLLOWING CHARGES
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Pages one and two

With two local teachers currently facing charges of sexual exploitation of students, School District 52 is assuring parents and students that its priority continues to be the well-being of students, past and present.

A teacher for five years at Charles Hays Secondary School, Dana Allison Monteith is the subject of allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior and he was charged on Dec. 23 with three counts of sexual exploitation of a young person.

The charges against Monteith were the second set of charges to be made against a Charles Hays teacher in 2007. Michael Anthony Kolesar was charged in March with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation of a person with a disability.

People facing charges are innocent until proven guilty in court and neither man has been able to defend himself in court to date.

“The RCMP are conducting their own investigation, and the superintendent is conducting ours, so they are working alongside each other but doing their own investigations,” said Tina Last, chair of School District 52.

“As with anything, it’s until something happens that you look a little closer at all of the policies that you have,” said Last. “I’m assuming as a parent and community member that there is a code of conduct for any teacher. Like doctors have their code of ethics, I’m assuming teachers have their own as well,”

The BC Teachers’ Federation, of which all K-12 teachers in public schools are members, has a Code of Ethics made up of 10 general rules for maintaining high standards of professional service and conduct. One rule under the BCTF Code of Ethics states that a teacher “recognizes that a privileged relationship with students exists and refrains from exploiting that relationship for material, ideological, or other advantage.”

While a BCTF staff member was unavailable to speak to the code of ethics, Prince Rupert District Teachers Union President Joanna Larson said allegations are a concern to teachers.
“We really don’t have the facts, and it’s up for the police and courts to determine, so hopefully the public is keeping that in mind,’ said Larson.

“It’s always devastating to teachers when these kinds of accusations are made, because they all want to believe that children are safe in the classroom,” said Larson.

“It’s just an allegation at this point, but it’s devastating either way.”

Last said that after the Kolesar charges were laid in March, the District 52 School Board began reviewing practices and policies for these situations, attempting to determine whether there were measures that could help avoid any future issues in the school district.

“I know we’ve been looking at practices such as teachers transporting students and things like that, but also (the relationship) as a whole,” she said.

“I know as a parent on a Parent Advisory Council, we look at things like parent volunteers driving students, and ensuring that a parent is never driving one lone student,” she said.
“And that’s for the protection of both parties, not just the student.”

As a parent and trustee, Last was quite sure that having charges of a sexual nature against a teacher in the district was the worst thing that could happen.

“To have it happen twice in the same district, in the same school, is more than concerning,” she said.

“But I believe, as my children attend Charles Hays, that it’s a good school and the staff there are awesome. I have to believe that. This has left all of us pretty speechless.”

After he was charged in March, Kolesar was suspended with pay for several months by former superintendent Brian Kangas, and was ultimately terminated with cause in November following the completion of the school district’s investigation. Similarly, following charges against Monteith, superintendent Eric Mercer suspended the 37 year-old physics teacher from his duties.