Opposition wants to know why PSB didn't pass reports of inappropriate touching to police
Questions raised around 'reasonable grounds to suspect a child requires protection'
The case of a former substitute teacher's sex crimes was once again the focus of debate in the P.E.I. Legislature Wednesday.
Questions from both opposition parties centred around the issue of duty to report, which is the legal obligation for anyone to report a suspected case of child abuse to authorities as soon as possible.
It's a provision of P.E.I.'s Child, Youth and Family Services Act, and similar phrasing exists in the province's Education Act.
Green and Liberal MLAs said in the house Wednesday that in the case of incidents involving Matthew Alan Craswell, the Public Schools Branch didn't follow the law.
"Information was brought to our education leaders within the PSB but duty to report was not followed, a clear contravention of the act," interim Green Leader Karla Bernard said in a question directed at Barb Ramsay, the minister responsible for child protection in the province.
"Complaints suggesting possible sexual assault were made to a director within your government. The legal duty to report was not followed. What consequences will you be employing to address this serious issue?"
Ramsay replied that the director of child protection was contacted by the RCMP in August 2024, after police had already laid criminal charges against Craswell.
Last week, the 40-year-old Craswell pleaded guilty to sexual interference in a case involving an elementary student at Stratford's Glen Stewart Primary.
He was first arrested and charged last summer with possession and distribution of child pornography after the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children flagged his internet activity.
New information came to light during the RCMP investigation, details of which were shared in court last week as Craswell pleaded guilty to four charges.
CBC News is aware of one other incident involving a student at an unidentified Charlottetown elementary school in June 2023, but Craswell faces no charges in relation to that.
Court documents indicate school officials were made aware of both reports of suspected sexual touching, but police were not contacted in either case.
The Public Schools Branch has said it did its own investigation into the reports and concluded, incorrectly, that the incidents were not sexual in nature. That's why authorities were not told, the education agency said.
Craswell continued to work in schools with older children as late as the spring of 2024, after the Public Schools Branch was informed.
'Reasonable grounds' up for debate
The Craswell case has led the province to order a third-party review into relevant Public Schools Branch policies and procedures that will be headed up by former P.E.I. chief justice David Jenkins. That inquiry is scheduled to begin June 2.
The issue of whether the schools branch had a duty to report the incidents involving Craswell may come down to the terminology of the act. It states that someone must have "reasonable grounds to suspect a child requires protection."
Bernard, who worked as a school counsellor earlier in her career, argued Wednesday that the PSB doesn't have the latitude to conduct its own investigations under the law.
"If a child comes and discloses that to you, you're not really the judge and jury there. You call child protection or the police and report that right away," she said.
"There was a law broken here — and as a result harm against children was able to continue in the school system."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Kerry Campbell