Teacher says she lost mould case, but won battle

[Guest guest]

Teacher says she lost mould case, but won battle

Montreal Gazette - Montreal,Quebec,Canada*

KAREN SEIDMAN, The Gazette

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/westisland/story.html?

id=6015e451-2e2e-4247-bd85-d2c1f747e1ef

Two years after exposing a serious mould problem at École secondaire

Dorval/ XXIII, a former teacher at the school who recently lost

her case protesting the board's decision to suspend her without pay

for a week says it's okay that that she lost the case - because she

won the battle.

Ann Synnett, an English teacher at the school, was suspended without

pay because she had alerted the media to the problem at the school.

In arbitration recently, she said the decision was made that the

Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys was justified in docking

her pay because of her insubordination.

" I take a lot of satisfaction in the fact that the building was

cleaned up in March 2007, " Synnett said. " The school board was mad

because I had my students visit the basement and then write letters

to the board. I told them that they have to act in life if there are

problems. "

In May 2005, when Synnett went public with the problem, she said the

water infiltration problem at the school had been causing

respiratory problems among students and staff because of mould

growing in the basement.

Two teachers who sent a letter to parents informing them about the

problem were suspended.

Diane Lamarche-Venne, chairperson of Marguerite Bourgeoys, said this

week that she wasn't at liberty to discuss the case because it was

still in arbitration. She said the water filtration problem at Jean

XXIII was " corrected a long time ago. "

[Guest guest]

I have great respect for people who make a stand regardless of the

risks to theirself. we need more people in the world like this.

this is what america was built on, the brave.

--- In , " tigerpaw2c " <tigerpaw2c@...>

wrote:

>

> Teacher says she lost mould case, but won battle

> Montreal Gazette - Montreal,Quebec,Canada*

> KAREN SEIDMAN, The Gazette

>

> http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/westisland/story.html?

> id=6015e451-2e2e-4247-bd85-d2c1f747e1ef

>

> Two years after exposing a serious mould problem at École

secondaire

> Dorval/ XXIII, a former teacher at the school who recently

lost

> her case protesting the board's decision to suspend her without pay

> for a week says it's okay that that she lost the case - because she

> won the battle.

>

> Ann Synnett, an English teacher at the school, was suspended

without

> pay because she had alerted the media to the problem at the school.

> In arbitration recently, she said the decision was made that the

> Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys was justified in docking

> her pay because of her insubordination.

>

> " I take a lot of satisfaction in the fact that the building was

> cleaned up in March 2007, " Synnett said. " The school board was mad

> because I had my students visit the basement and then write letters

> to the board. I told them that they have to act in life if there

are

> problems. "

>

>

> In May 2005, when Synnett went public with the problem, she said

the

> water infiltration problem at the school had been causing

> respiratory problems among students and staff because of mould

> growing in the basement.

>

> Two teachers who sent a letter to parents informing them about the

> problem were suspended.

>

> Diane Lamarche-Venne, chairperson of Marguerite Bourgeoys, said

this

> week that she wasn't at liberty to discuss the case because it was

> still in arbitration. She said the water filtration problem at Jean

> XXIII was " corrected a long time ago. "

>