Board rehires teacher who sent sexy letters to student

Sep. 3, 2005. 08:17 AM


BARRIE—Simcoe County District School Board has rehired the central Ontario elementary school teacher cleared of charges stemming from sexually-charged letters she sent a pupil in 1998.

 

But Laura Sclater may undergo retraining before returning to a classroom, board chairman Debra Edwards said yesterday.

 

"A court of law exonerated her, and the (Ontario College of Teachers) lifted her certificate and then gave it back. The board's role in all of this seems to be secondary. We're simply having to to comply with it."

 

Edwards could not confirm which school Sclater would teach in once her training was complete.

 

Sclater has denied being rehired.

 

"We're still in negotiations at this point," her husband Steve said yesterday. "We don't know what we're going to do yet."

 

Sclater admitted sending sexually-charged letters to a 13-year-old while teaching at Alcona's Goodfellow Public School. His mother discovered her son had received 64 letters from Sclater.

 

Sclater was acquitted in 2001, when a judge decided the student was not a credible witness. She was reprimanded by the school board after admitting to conduct unbecoming of a teacher before an Ontario College of Teachers panel. Her email to students must relate to educational tasks.

Source

www.OttawaMensCentre.com