MONTREAL — Eleven teachers at a Montreal elementary school have been suspended after a government investigation found they fostered a "toxic" climate of fear and intimidation.
In a move it described as unprecedented, the Centre de services scolaires de Montréal said its director general asked administrators to immediately suspend the teachers at Bedford school in the city's multicultural Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood.
It said Isabelle Gélinas made the decision Thursday evening after a provincial investigative committee passed on the names of educators who allegedly subjected students to violence as well as claims that autism does not exist.
The suspensions will continue until investigative committees have wrapped up their work, Quebec's largest school service centre said Saturday evening.
"These committees are charged with determining whether these 11 teachers have committed a serious fault or an act derogatory to the honour or dignity of the teaching profession in the performance of their duties," it said.
Educational services at the primary school will be reorganized starting Monday alongside plans “to re-establish a healthy and safe climate," the service centre said. Substitute teachers have been designated and support services put in place for Bedford students.
Last week, the Quebec government appointed monitors to address the harmful environment it said had taken root at the French-language school.
They are slated to investigate the allegations and report back by Nov. 30 with recommendations and an action plan.
Quebec's measures follow an Education Department report made public earlier this month concluding there was a "dominant clan" of teachers who imposed strict, autocratic rule over students and intimidated and ostracized anyone who opposed them.
Detailing events between 2016 and 2024, the report said children at the school were subjected to physical and psychological violence, and teachers refused to teach or paid little attention to subjects such as oral communication, science, religion and sex education. Learning difficulties and autism didn't exist for some teachers, it said.
"The evidence gathered tends to show that some teachers at Bedford school would benefit from developing their knowledge and understanding of learning disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders," the report stated, noting that some teachers believed excessive discipline and control would work and denied kids additional help to which they were entitled.
"They act with the idea of 'breaking' the student and getting them back on the right path," it read.
The government's investigation was triggered by a series of radio reports by Montreal 98.5 FM beginning in May 2023 about a toxic climate at the school. Education department employees conducted more than 102 hours of interviews with 73 people and attended a governing board meeting. Their work was carried out between November 2023 and last April.
The testimonies provided a portrait of the situation spanning about seven or eight years, and revealed that a quick succession of school directors came and went during that period. The vast majority of students at the school did not speak Quebec's official language as their first language; only about 20 per cent spoke French at home.
The report described the group of problematic teachers as being of North African descent, some of whom attended a local mosque together. It said a representative from the mosque met one year with the school's administration, explaining "the importance of having good relations with the Muslims of the neighbourhood and of the school." Witnesses told the government investigators that the local Muslim community carried a "strong influence" on several of the school's staff members.
However, the report mentioned that there were staff members of North African descent who opposed the way the "dominant clan" was acting.
Education Minister Bernard Drainville has ordered audits at three other schools — two elementary schools and a high school — under the governance of the same service centre as Bedford, and allegedly with similar problems related to climate and governance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2024.
— With files from Sidhartha Banerjee
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
