TDSB principals list

Toronto’s public school board hid a video camera at work of the principal suspected of misconduct, putting him under surveillance for “months” before a caretaker found the unit inside a clock, states the Ontario Principals’ Council within an email to any or all Toronto managers.

The main, recognized by board sources as Courtney Carroll of Jack Miner Public School in Scarborough, was suspected of writing a magazine throughout work hours, sources say.

Your camera was trained at Carroll’s desk, a resource stated, however it remains unclear that which was taken on video. The principals’ council stated it's concerned since the principal — whom the council didn't title — transformed clothes in the office as the camera was at place, and offered the area “as a personal space for any employee to breastfeed her child.”

The e-mail continued to state the main used his office for private conferences with parents and students as the hidden camera was filming.

Carroll, via email, stated he couldn't “confirm or deny whether surveillance of the character was utilized within my school, ” adding that “the information you've acquired is fake. I'm not writing a magazine, either on school time or else. Used to do write a magazine on my small personal time which was released this year.Inches

After getting in touch with the board with concerns, Toronto District School Board director Donna Quan “has now provided written assurances that you will find presently no hidden cameras in almost any office of the principal/vice-principal utilized by the TDSB, ” council leader John Hamilton stated within the email.

Quan further vowed that such surveillance wasn’t carried out on other principals since “at least” 2007, the e-mail stated.

Hamilton put in the e-mail that Quan decided to place a moratorium on video surveillance of non-public offices as the board’s surveillance protocol has been examined.

Margaret Wilson, lately submitted through the province to look at the Toronto board, released a scathing set of its “culture of fear” and stated she been told by many employees who thought their phones and computer systems appeared to be supervised.

She told the Star she heard about the hidden camera incident while talking with reps from various groups and it was “shocked.”

“It did strike me included in the whole climate in the board, ” she stated within an interview.

While used rarely — and, typically, asked for by principals themselves in the event of thievery, vandalism or misconduct — it's much more unusual for any board to research a principal utilizing a hidden camera.

Your camera utilized in this situation didn't record any seem.

Based on Ontario’s sunshine list, Carroll gained $120, 981 this past year.

Within an email towards the Star, he noted the provincial and Toronto organizations representing principals “are working with the TDSB to solve their concerns about using surreptitious surveillance in schools.”

“… I'm a devoted educator who is a loyal TDSB worker for 25 years. I actually do my utmost for everyone my students well. If required, I'll pursue all possible legal remedies for just about any harm to my status triggered by anybody making false accusations against me.”

Carroll, an old fitness expert, may be the author of , The Financial Fitness Blueprint: An Operating Guide for Allowing the Existence You Would Like if you take Control of Your Hard Earned Money, has a few websites with several articles including “Kids and Money” and “Protect Your Ass-ets, ” and it is referred to on Twitter like a “real estate investor, author, educator and speaker.”

The principals’ council, in the email to any or all Toronto managers, stated — without naming anybody — that “the member most definitely didn't commit thievery or vandalism or any misconduct of the similar character that will justify surreptitious surveillance of the private office. If the member involved in any misconduct whatsoever is within dispute.”

Board representative Ryan Bird told the Star that although he cannot discuss the more knowledge about any situation due to privacy concerns, “the TDSB does, in very rare cases, use hidden cameras included in worker services research.

“It’s something that’s utilized by other organizations, as well as for us sturdy discovering that balance between your privacy privileges in our greater than 35Thousand staff while doing our legal research to safeguard not just our students and staff, but property.”

Other techniques, for example monitoring computer use, may be employed, he added.

Other boards approached through the Star say additionally they use hidden cameras, although rarely. The Peel board estimations it's done this four occasions previously 5 years, always underneath the direction of police, using the director’s approval, which no staff are exempt. The You are able to Region public board stated the final time that it used a concealed camera to research staff was fifteen years ago.

John Yan, representative for that Toronto Catholic District School Board, stated the board has utilized hidden cameras to watch personnel “in very remarkable cases, ” usually including suspected thievery.

“We did it very, hardly ever previously, ” he stated. “Not in recent memory.”

Toronto work lawyer Howard Levitt thinks privately filming an worker within their private office is “entirely illegal, ” and falls underneath the Ontario privacy tort Invasion Upon Seclusion, established this year.