Teacher With Oversized ‘Prosthetic’ Breasts No Longer at Ontario School

Board meeting on dress policy circled the topic without providing answers, say parents

Attendees sit in the gallery at a meeting of the Halton District School Board in Burlington, Ont., on Feb. 15, 2023. Julia de Winter

An Ontario teacher whose controversial attire has gained international attention is no longer in the classroom.

“While not currently on an active assignment, the teacher remains employed with the HDSB [Halton District School Board],” spokesperson Heather Francey told The Epoch Times via email. She did not elaborate further on the teacher’s status or reasons for being taken off active assignment.

Shop teacher Kayla Lemieux—formerly Kerry Lemieux—has worn tight shirts over very large breasts assumed to be prosthetic. While Lemieux has been at the centre of an uproar at Oakville Trafalgar High School since September, the teacher’s departure comes amid a ramped up outcry from MPPs and the education minister.

It also comes shortly after Lemieux broke a long media silence in an exclusive interview with the New York Post.

Last week, the Post published photos of a man it said is Lemieux without the oversized breasts and other accoutrements. The Post said it had photographers staked outside Lemieux’s residence and observed the teacher emerging both in costume and out of costume.

In the interview, however, Lemieux said the breasts are real and said the pictures were of someone else. Neighbours had confirmed the man in the pictures to be Lemieux, the Post said.

Francey did not comment on Lemieux further, except to say, “We continue to support the teacher in partnership with OSSTF [Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation].”

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said at Queen’s Park on Feb. 21, “It’s unacceptable and an abdication of responsibility of the school board for not defending and upholding the interests of children.”

Three Progressive Conservative MPPs issued a statement Feb. 28 echoing that statement: “The HDSB has abdicated its responsibility by failing to put the interests and safety of students first.”

Board Discusses Policy

HDSB presented a draft professionalism policy during its meeting on March 1. The policy is the board’s response to community outcry, and it has garnered more than 4,000 public comments thus far (the comment period ends March 12). Many parents are unsatisfied with it.

Students First Ontario, a parent group that formed to call the HDSB to action on this issue, said in an email statement on March 2, “The Board spent almost an hour circling the topic of professionalism policy last night. ... The evening ended with no additional clarity on next steps or timing of when a detailed procedure would be in place.”

The draft policy does not mention standards of dress or any specifics. It is made up of excerpts from professional policies already in place that speak of teachers being role models and providing a learning environment free of distractions.

Trustees asked Director of Education Curtis Ennis and Superintendent of Human Resources Sari Taha why that is so.

Taha said it is because the board can’t create new staff policies during a statutory freeze due to labour negotiations. So the board is pulling from existing policies instead.

A delegate named Lynn Petruskavich who spoke earlier in the meeting cited Ontario employment lawyer Howard Levitt, challenging the idea that a dress code can’t be developed during a statutory freeze.

She read from Levitt’s op-ed in the Financial Post: “The management rights clause in every collective agreement permits the employer to require its employees to dress reasonably and even more so to require that a teacher of young people be a role model for civility and professionalism.”

Taha skirted questions about consequences currently in place for violating existing professionalism policies. He said there are “existing steps and mechanics” for how to adjudicate, but did not specify.

Trustee Naveed Ahmed​ said of the draft policy, “It’s not very specific, it’s not precise, and it doesn’t speak to the outcome. ... Are we going to make this more specific?”

“Policies as a document are not meant to be operational or mechanic in nature,” Taha replied. “They provide a statement of principal.” He said, once the policy is finalized, “then we turn our attention to some of the things you raised, whether this policy needs a companion procedure.”

Ennis said, “The procedure that will follow from the framework of the policy will have some specificity that we have not previously consolidated or collated or put forward to staff.”

Neither Ennis nor Taha said when a procedure for enforcement would be developed or what kind of enforcement that might include.

Regarding multiple bomb threats against the school and threats of violence against board staff, Ennis said, “these have been distressing and heartbreaking.”

“It has not been easy,” Ennis said. “I’ve dedicated over 27 years of my life to education and I can tell you that students have always been and continue to be at the very heart of everything that I do.”

“We take our responsibilities to students very seriously,” he said.