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.
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].”
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.”
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.
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.