As a birthday surprise for secondary school teacher Chris Matisz, he received what he said felt like a “gut punch” when he opened a letter from the Ministry of Education saying he had lost his job.
“It literally feels like in the moment that your whole world has turned upside down,” said Matisz.
Matisz was one of dozens Lower Mainland teachers who had their licences revoked last week after critical emails about updating their criminal record checks were sent to spam folders, or not received at all.
Every five years, teachers in B.C. must renew their criminal record checks through the Ministry of Education and Child Care to comply with the Criminal Record Review Act, according to the ministry’s website.
It is a process that has never been an issue for Matisz in his 26 years of teaching in B.C., until now.
On Feb. 23, Matisz received a letter in the mail from the Ministry of Education saying as of Feb. 11 his teacher licence had been suspended because he did not provide further information to the ministry needed to complete his check.
“This just, boom, arrives literally like a bomb in my mail,” said Matisz.
Matisz, like most teachers, have given the Ministry of Education permission to submit their annual criminal record checks on their behalf.
When further information is needed the ministry contacts the teacher who has 90 days to comply with the notice, or faces having their teaching licences suspended.
This is the situation Matisz found himself in.
Letter felt like a bomb dropped
A letter from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General sent to Matisz and shared with CBC News, says he needed to submit new finger printing to complete his criminal record check because an individual with a “similar combination of name and/or sex and/or date of birth as you” was found to have a history of sexual offences.
A statement from RCMP spokesperson Camille Boily-Lavoie says that The RCMP’s Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services process about 650,000 fingerprint-based criminal record checks a year.
The statement says if fingerprints need manual processing or there is a possible match to a criminal record, results can take up to 120 days. But if there is no match, processing typically takes 3 days.
The results are then returned to the B.C. Criminal Record Review Program.
“Someone out there with a criminal record of sexual offenses, is apparently going about their daily life, oblivious to what’s happening to me,” said Matisz.
“And me, the innocent individual, a teacher with no criminal record at all, being treated in a way where I feel like I’m the criminal.”
Matisz immediately had his fingerprinting done and sent the confirmation to the ministry and his employer who temporarily lifted the suspension of his licences.
Matisz only missed one day of class but is still grappling with many questions, like will he lose compensation only for the one day of school he was suspended? Or will the pay deduction be retroactive to Feb. 11, when the letter from the Ministry of Education said the suspension started?
Ministry won’t say if teachers will be paid
CBC News asked the Ministry of Education about teachers’ pay but did not receive a response.
In a statement the Ministry of Education and Child Care said “the ministry is working with districts, the BCTF [B.C. Teachers’ Federation] and the TRB [Teacher Regulation Branch] to create more entry points for communication with current certificate holders, while respecting their right to privacy.”
The ministry says it makes multiple attempts to contact affected teachers before suspending certificates.
The Vancouver School Board said in a statement it does not pay suspended teachers, “however, internally we carefully review individual situations to ensure appropriate action is taken.”
Matisz has not found the original notice from the ministry informing him that he needed new fingerprinting done.
Correspondence about criminal record checks are sent to teachers personal email accounts.
Matisz said he went through his spam folder and did not find it, and can only assume it was automatically deleted from the folder after sitting there for a while.
“Realistically, who checks their spam email? Even from time to time,” said Matisz.
BCTF told ministry about spam issue
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) told CBC News in a statement that on Feb. 11 it did alert the Ministry of Education and the Teacher Regulation Branch that some emails were landing in teachers spam folders, in hopes it could be addressed.
“Some school districts allowed those members whose certificates had been suspended to keep working, while others issued immediate suspensions,” the statement said.
The BCTF said it hopes the ministry will review the issue and make changes, given the “acute teacher shortage” it expects school districts to prioritize keeping qualified teachers in classrooms and make every effort to notify teachers.
Ken Christensen, president of the Coquitlam Teachers Association, said he has never seen an issue like this before.
“The impact of this was very real,” said Christensen.
“This did a lot of emotional damage in addition to the financial damage that’s occurred,” said Christensen.
Three teachers in his union had their licences suspended last week.
Christensen said he asked the Coquitlam School District to pay the impacted teachers for their days missed, even though the issue wasn’t their fault.
CBC News reached out to the Coquitlam School District but said they did not have any information to provide.
“I would like to see a solution come from the provincial level to sort this out on a global way, but I can’t rely on that,” said Christensen.
The Surrey School district, which had 20 impacted teachers, said in a statement that a teaching certificate is a condition of employment and is actively working to address the issue, but didn’t say if they will compensate their staff.
