A Prince George teacher, alleging School District 57 fired her in retaliation for being involved in a pair of previous complaints, will get a hearing before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
Leslie Budac was part of a group complaint to the tribunal in January 2013 that claimed the school district gave preference to younger people and men over older female teachers in filling vacant positions. That issue was settled by agreement and withdrawn in April 2013.
A month later, Budac and two others filed a complaint alleging the school district had launched a review of her performance as a form of retaliation, imposing a one-day suspension in the process. By January 2014, that too was settled away from the tribunal and the complaint was withdrawn.
As part of the settlement, the school district agreed to refrain from evaluating Budac for the first six months of the 2014-15 school year.
But as of the time of the settlement, Budac was off on medical leave for post-traumatic stress disorder after being choked by a student.
She returned to work in April 2014 and was soon under the school district's spotlight.
According to submissions from the school district, she was issued a disciplinary letter for yelling at a student who had left gym class and was running down the hall.
Then a concern was raised about giving a student points for good behaviour despite bringing a knife to class.
By May, a behavioural specialist was in her classroom for a day and found Budac had no control over the classroom, failed to notice a student had left the classroom and turned her back to students during outside play time.
Similar problems arose over the next few days, according to school district submissions to the tribunal, and she was suspended.
And in late June 2014, the school board fired Budac after hearing submissions from district superintendent Brian Pepper and the Prince George Teachers Association.
It was largely on that basis that, in a submission made in January, the school district argued Budac's complaint should not be allowed to proceed.
And in a decision issued in early May, tribunal member Walter Pylypchuk came close to agreeing but still had concerns about the superintendent's report to the school board about Budac. In particular, he questioned why Pepper referred to Budac's two previous complaints to the tribunal.
"What I can say for certain is that I am in no position to sort this out on a preliminary basis," Pylypchuk said.
"The items on (School) District 57's side of the ledger appear overwhelming and, in other circumstances, I might have sided with District 57.
"However, I find that the timing and the troublesome aspects of the District Superintendent's report referencing the human rights complaints and removed discipline-related investigations are sufficient to tilt the field enough to the Complainant's side to take the Complaint out of the realm of conjecture. I cannot say that a reasonable complainant could not perceive District 57's conduct to be retaliatory in these circumstances."
Budac's dismissal is also to be the subject of a hearing before an arbitrator this month.
