I am an HWDSB teacher on long-term disability due to workplace transphobia and whistleblower retaliation. Like the trustees in the Dec. 16 article, “Public school board broadens proposed whistleblower policy,” I, too, have questions about the HWDSB’s internal investigations.
Practising what one teaches is expected of all educators. Yet, while staff encourage students to speak up about bullying, human resources superintendent Jamie Nunn said only 54.5 per cent of employees felt comfortable reporting wrongdoing. What is so intimidating to educators that they can’t do what they ask daily of children?
Nunn stated that a whistleblower would not escape culpability if they were part of wrongdoing. That was undoubtedly correct in my case, based on the cascade of unfortunate career events post-whistleblowing. In spring 2018, I reported incidents involving students saying all trans people should die, an educator showing a video with trans people dying and an administrator stating a particular student brought gender identity bullying upon themself. After two months of little action or answers, I filed a complaint, and an internal investigation was completed, finding I was exposed to transphobia unintentionally and that I exposed myself to transphobia by asking too many questions.
The...
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