FAMILY SUES SCHOOL BOARD

DURHAM -- An Uxbridge student and his parents are suing the Durham
District School Board, five of its trustees and three staff members,
seeking $250,000 in damages and the clearing of the pupil's record.
At issue is the expulsion of the student, now 18, in January 2001.
While he has since been readmitted, the defendants claim he was
expelled based on unproven information from Durham Regional Police,
and that the board bungled the expulsion hearing, violating the
Education Act.

Whitby trustees Elizabeth Roy and Doug Ross, Brock-Uxbridge Trustee
Nancy Loraine, Oshawa Trustee Kathleen Hopper and Pickering Trustee
Jennifer Bridge are named in the suit. As well, the statement of
claim filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice lists
education director Grant Yeo, Uxbridge schools superintendent Bev
Freedman and Uxbridge Secondary School principal Peter Morris as
defendants.

The student and his parents cannot be identified because he was under
18 at the time of the incident.

In an interview, the student's mother said the family has been
through "hell". She did not deny police caught her son off school
property with marijuana during a holiday break, but denies he sold
drugs at the school, as Durham Regional Police and the board claim.
Sergeant Paul Malik, Durham police spokesman, said Tuesday the teen
was given a conditional discharge in the case.

The parent said she realized something might be amiss when she read
an Uxbridge Times-Journal story about a school board meeting in which
a trustee alleged his colleagues violated the Education Act in
conducting an illegal expulsion hearing. When she saw that the
hearing took place on March 19, 2001, she realized they were talking
about her son's case.

The issue has been a contentious one amongst trustees. Five trustees
formed a committee to conduct an expulsion hearing, and the entire
board of trustees later ratified the decision, a course of action
sanctioned by the board's lawyer.

Two weeks later at a standing committee meeting, Scugog Trustee
Martin Demmers argued his colleagues had no authority to form their
own committee. Other trustees, including Pickering Trustee Paul
Crawford and Oshawa Trustee Cynthia Steffen, supported Trustee
Demmers' motion the board solicit a second legal opinion. That motion
was defeated.

Earlier this year, when board members feuded over a controversial
legal bill incurred by some trustees, the trustees involved indicated
they sought advice from a lawyer after rejecting the opinion of the
board solicitor regarding an expulsion hearing.

The parent confirmed some of the trustees involved in the legal bill,
and their lawyer, had contacted her about her son's case.

In the board's statement of defence, it claims neither the student
nor his parents "took any steps in 2001, whatsoever, to appeal and/or
review the decision of the trustees.

"The defendants plead that the expulsion hearing was properly
conducted and the plaintiff's remedies, arising therefrom, if anyone
or more of them felt aggrieved, were to immediately appeal or seek
judicial review of the decision and that by their failure to do so,
they are now estopped by, amongst other things, their delay and
laches from advancing any such claim in this honourable court."

The statement says the student's arrest "was a continuation of an
investigation that was conducted at the school, relating to (the
student's) direct involvement in the distribution of narcotics on
school property."

Alan Farrer, the board's lawyer, said in an interview there are two
parallel proceedings, a judicial review and a lawsuit, that will be
dealt with at different times. He expected the review to take place
sometime this year but estimated the trial likely would not be held
this year.

Mr. Farrer said it was not appropriate to get into details of the
case. However, he acknowledged Mr. Morris was not present at the
expulsion hearing. The family claims that's a violation of the
Education Act, a claim rejected by Mr. Farrer.


Pubdate: Jul 17, 2002
Source: Oshawa This Week
Copyright: 2002 Metroland Printing, Publishing, & Distributing, LTD
Contact: newsroom@durhamregion.com
Website: http://www.durhamregion.com
Author: Mike Ruta