“11 teachers all at once?”: Parents shocked by suspensions at Montreal school

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Parents at a Montreal primary school where 11 teachers were suspended over the weekend expressed shock and confusion during after-school pickup on Monday, with several questioning if the situation had been blown out of proportion.

The suspensions, announced on Saturday, came after a Quebec government report found a “dominant clan” of teachers had created a toxic environment at Bedford elementary school, imposing strict rules on students and intimidating anyone who opposed them.

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“It’s shocking for everyone. And we don’t know exactly what happened, or for what reason they were suspended,” said Kamrun Nahar, whose daughter attends the Côte-des-Neiges school. “Eleven teachers all at once?”

Her daughter’s teacher is among those who were suspended. Like others who spoke to The Gazette on Monday, Nahar struggled to reconcile the report’s findings with what she knows of the teachers at the school.

The report leading to the suspensions detailed events between 2016 and 2024.

It found 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.

It also noted some teachers believed learning difficulties and autism didn’t exist and that excessive discipline and control would work to “break” some students and get them “back on the right path.”

The report described the group of problematic teachers as being of North African descent, some of whom attended a local mosque together. Witnesses also told the government investigators that the local Muslim community carried a “strong influence” on several of the school’s staff members.

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Several Muslim parents with children at the school said Monday they fear the suspensions will fuel political discourse and cast the Muslim community in Quebec in a negative light.

“If a teacher did something, they should pay for it,” said Houda, a 43-year-old who requested her last name not be published.

“But I never had any problems in 11 years,” she added, noting she has one child attending the school and two others who have graduated from it. “No intimidation, no yelling, none of that.”

Zahira, whose son is in third grade at Bedford, also questioned some of the issues detailed in the report.

“We’re parents — of course we don’t want our children to be humiliated or intimidated,” she said, describing the teachers she knows at the school as competent educators.

“We have no idea what this is all about,” she added. “But as the Muslim community, we’re now also targeted by this. And our children know their parents are Muslim, so it takes on a whole other meaning.”

In Quebec City on Monday,  Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called for stricter secularism rules in light of the controversy at the school, urging other politicians not to shy away from the debate because it involves religion.

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St-Pierre Plamondon said the situation illustrates how the absence of a mix of students in Montreal’s schools has led to a few cultural or religious communities assuming a majority position.

“The danger isn’t only in Quebec,” he told reporters. “You can see this all over the western world.”

The government’s investigation into the school was triggered by a series of radio reports by Montreal’s 98.5 FM beginning in May of last year.

To complete the 89-page report, Education Ministry employees conducted more than 102 hours of interviews with 73 people and attended a governing board meeting at the school.

Other parents present at the school on Monday said they had heard rumblings about the teachers’ alleged conduct, but were still shocked by the extent of the details revealed in the report.

Jean-Hugues Fournier’s son, now in fifth grade, has been at Bedford since preschool.

Fournier said he doesn’t feel comfortable keeping his son there anymore, but fears the only other option  —  having him change schools with just two years to go  —  could be more disruptive to his education.

He said his son would often tell him things about teachers at the school that Fournier would dismiss as exaggerated.

He now sees it in a different light, he said.

“I worried when all of this started coming out,” Fournier said. “Did I doubt him for no reason?”

jfeith@postmedia.com

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