Proposed conduct code ridiculously tough: teachers
Author: Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun
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VANCOUVER - A tough new code of conduct for school employees that includes a warning against exposing students to nudity through activities such as skinny dipping is over the top, teachers say.

"This is absurd overkill," said Anne Guthrie Warman, president of the Vancouver Secondary Teachers' Association, in response to the proposed rules.

The code was developed by school officials in the aftermath of the sensational trial of former teacher Tom Ellison for sex crimes against students in the 1970s and '80s.

Ellison was sentenced in January 2007 to two years of house arrest for two counts of gross indecency, two indecent assaults and one common assault.

The overkill is driven by post-Ellison paranoia, the union says. "This is the Ellison effect. There's no question about that," Guthrie Warman said in an interview Thursday.

Any prohibition against exposing students to nudity would affect the ability of art students to participate in life drawing classes at institutions such as the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, she noted.

"Are we now so philistine and paranoid that we would set aside thousands of years of art history?" the union asks. The mention of skinny dipping was included only because that was one of the tactics Ellison used to seduce and abuse teenage students at the Quest outdoor education program, the union contends, adding: "It simply doesn't happen."

Guthrie Warman said teachers also take issue with some other examples of "unacceptable behaviour" in the code, such as yelling. "Everyone yells once in a while, including management," she told trustees this week.

The code is an extremely blunt instrument to deal with a small minority of people who cross professional boundaries for behaviour, she said.

Clarence Hansen, Vancouver board of education chairman, admitted the school district was rocked by the Ellison scandal and said the union has a point in arguing that the code is overkill.

"There's a grain of truth to that," he said in an interview. "We need to look at this a little bit more."

Guthrie Warman said the detailed code does address some issues that need attention but it also repeats rules that already exist for teachers in the School Act, the B.C. College of Teachers standards and union ethics.

Issues needing attention include teacher participation in social networking sites, such as Facebook, Guthrie Warman said. The code suggests that sharing overly personal information with students or communicating with them via private e-mail or social networking sites is unacceptable behaviour.

While agreeing the code needs more work, Hansen said the board is committed to having a version in place for the next school year. It will apply to all adults in schools, not just teachers, and its reach makes it highly unusual.

Development of a code of conduct was recommended by Don Avison, a former deputy education minister hired by the school district to review the Quest case and determine what could be done to ensure it never happens again.

Laura Anderson, one of Ellison's victims, said she was pleased with the proposed code. "I don't think this is a paranoid response and I don't think it's overkill. This (sexual abuse of students) was not a one-off experience. This is happening time and time and time again."

She suggested the concern about nudity could be easily addressed by clarifying that it refers to student or teacher nudity. Regarding yelling, she noted the code refers to yelling that humiliates students.

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