11 Montreal elementary school teachers suspended after toxic behaviour allegations

The largest school service centre in the province has suspended 11 teachers who have allegedly fostered a toxic climate in a Montreal elementary school.

Bedford elementary school, which is located in Montreal's west-central Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood, is the subject of a 90-page government report. According to that report from the Education Ministry, those 11 teachers have spent years working as a "dominant clan" and spreading fear within the school while intimidating students and staff.

The report mentions that these teachers punished students with learning disabilities simply because they didn't recognize those disabilities as legitimate. They're also alleged to have prevented support staff from entering classrooms and worked together to undermine school management decisions. 

The Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), which oversees more than 111,000 students across 186 schools, issued a statement Saturday evening saying it had asked the elementary school to proceed with the suspension of the 11 teachers.

"This unprecedented move aims to restore, as quickly as possible, a healthy and safe environment for the students of Bedford and for the entire education community," the statement reads. 

In the statement, the CSSDM says the suspensions were made possible by the fact that its executive director, Isabelle Gélinas, now knows the names of the teachers at the heart of the allegations, having received that information Thursday from investigation committees that were mandated by the province.

"Equipped with this new information, the CSSDM can now proceed with the suspensions," the statement reads.

According to the ministry report, 98.5 FM has described the teachers intimidating students and school administration as being part of a "clan," mainly composed of people of North African origin.

However, investigators noted in the report that while there may be two opposing groups among staff at the school, they are both made up of people of different origins, and investigators mainly observed "an opposition of ideologies."

"It is important to emphasize that although the majority clan is mainly composed of people of Maghrebi origin, people of other origins are also associated with it," the report said. "The minority clan is also partly composed of individuals of Maghrebi origin, including some who are strongly opposing the majority clan."

Gélinas and the school service centre have faced heavy scrutiny in recent weeks.

Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy, who is also the party's education critic, says Gélinas has been too slow to address the issues within the school. Rizqy pointed out that the Education Ministry's 90-page report was not the first one that outlined those teachers' alleged behaviours.

She's accused Gélinas of "willful blindness" and has called for her to step down.

During an interview on Sunday with Radio-Canada, Rizqy scoffed at the CSSDM's claim that Gélinas only found out this week who the 11 teachers were. 

"They already had the names," she said. "No one in Quebec will, for a second, believe that the employer did not know the names of the employees."

The Education Ministry's report stated that several staff members spoke up about the situation at the school on several occasions.

"Our analysis shows that those complaints weren't necessarily treated as formal complaints, and often times they were not followed up on by the school service centre," the report reads.

Gélinas began her tenure as the CSSDM's executive director in February 2022.

Effect on students

The CSSDM says it has a plan to make up for the absence of the 11 suspended teachers.

"The substitute teachers, who have already been appointed, will have the necessary support to make sure the students' learning goes ahead normally," the CSSDM wrote in its statement.

It also said resource staff will be present in the school to support students academically and psychologically.

The school service centre says the teachers' suspensions start Monday, and will last until the investigation committees has completed its work. 

The CSSDM added that those committees are tasked with determining if the teachers "committed a serious fault in the exercise of the teacher's functions or an act derogatory to the honour or dignity of the teaching profession." 

That is grounds for revoking a teaching licence, according to the province's Education Act.

In a message posted to X, Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville acknowledged the school service centre's decision to suspend the teachers. 

"On our end, we'll continue to act with the tools at our disposal," Drainville wrote, adding that the investigative committee is still at work. 

Two provincial government employees are at the school monitoring the situation and are expected to draft an action plan by the end of November.

Earlier this week, Drainville reiterated his trust in Gélinas.

Three other schools with the CSSDM are being monitored by the provincial ministry for issues also related to a potentially toxic climate. Two of them are also in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood: Saint-Pascal-Baylon elementary school and La Voie high school.

The third one, Bienville elementary school, is in the northeastern Saint-Michel neighbourhood. 

Update Nov. 13, 2024: CBC has added information from the Education Ministry report to this story for additional context.