A “cancelled” Ontario teacher who was silenced during her presentation at a school board meeting, spoke out publicly on Oct. 5 against actions the school board has taken against her and others, citing a lack of transparency between the administration and parents.
Carolyn Burjoski was removed from the trustee meeting, expelled from her classroom, and subject to a disciplinary investigation after expressing concerns at the meeting about the age-inappropriate of sexual content in elementary school library books.
“I’m motivated out of concern for children,” said Carolyn Burjoski during an Oct. 5 event titled ”
Education at the Crossroads,” which was held in the Kitchener-Waterloo region.
Burjoski, who has a website called
cancelledteacher.com through which she explains her situation, is involved in an ongoing defamation lawsuit against the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB).
Burjoski filed the
suit after the school board barred her from her classroom following her presentation to the board, during which she raised concerns about elementary school library books that dealt with topics such as a 12-year-old finding happiness after undergoing gender transition and a grade 3 student declaring his “asexual” identity after wondering why he’s “not thinking about naked girls.”
School board chair Scott Piatkowski
said he cut Burjoski’s presentation short because he believed her words to be in violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code. In subsequent media interviews, he said Burjoski’s comments were “transphobic.”
At the Oct. 5 event, Burjoski said she acted against the advice of her lawyers in speaking out publically against the board.
“I couldn’t not speak,“ she said, later adding that she hopes her legal action against the WRDSB will ”deter future school boards from trying to intimidate, silence, and punish and slander parents and teachers whose diverse opinions may be inconsistent with the school’s ideology.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Piatkowski for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
‘Ring the Alarm Bell’
Mike Ramsay, a WRDSB trustee who was later
suspended from meetings between June and September for allegedly violating the board’s code of conduct, was also
scheduled to speak at the event but later decided against it due to legal concerns.
Ramsay, who also spoke out in defence of Burjoski, is currently
challenging his suspension by the board and seeking a court order that would require the board to declare its actions “unreasonable” and a violation of his charter rights.
“I can’t risk speaking right now,” Ramsay wrote in a statement that was read at the event by guest speaker David Haskell, a tenured Wilfrid Laurier University professor. “For all that you have seen and heard so far in the WRDSB, I will continue to ring the alarm bell.”
“I want to continue the fight against indoctrinating kids to adopt divisive concepts,” said Ramsay’s statement. “I want to continue to promote educating kids about important historical events in an unbiased manner and without teachers imposing their own personal beliefs.”
On Oct. 2, Ramsay
posted school board documents and the code of conduct complaint that were used as evidence in his ongoing legal challenge. The documents, which Ramsay said he is “now permitted to legally share,” showed that his suspension was allegedly related to his public criticism of Piatkowski and the WRDSB.
Piatkowski responded to Ramsay’s actions in a
statement, saying he’s “disappointed that a Trustee who chose to breach it [the code of conduct] is also choosing to share information publicly that all Trustees are required to keep confidential.”
Speaking at “Education at the Crossroads,” Burjoski called for a reform of the WRDSB and spoke out against the lack of openness between the board and its constituents.
“I believe that what happened to me shows how far our school board has fallen from its former emphasis on critical thinking, open discussion, collaboration, academic excellence, and democratic values,” Burjoski said. “It is essential that we work together to reform this school board, which must begin with recovering our democratic right to speak without fear of intimidation.”
Burjoski also called attention to the upcoming Ontario school board trustee
elections which will be held on Oct. 24.
“On Oct. 24, we can elect trustees who operate in a more transparent, responsive, and democratic manner,” she said.
Andrew Chen contributed to this report.
