Parents’ rage boiled over at an Ontario school board meeting on Wednesday night as details and timelines for a proposed staff dress code remained unclear—this after months of continued bomb threats and international media attention on Oakville Trafalgar High School over a teacher with huge prosthetic breasts.
The most recent bomb threat on the school came on Wednesday, but classes were not cancelled. With so many threats, now “there’s no protocol being upheld,” parent Julia De Winter told The Epoch Times. The school is in a constant state of semi-lockdown.
The Halton District School Board (HDSB) announced on Jan. 3 it would develop a “professionalism policy” including “standards of dress.” Yet it is uncertain whether this policy will stop the teacher, Kayla Lemieux (formerly Kerry Lemieux), from wearing the breasts with protruding nipples.
The recent board meeting included an interim report on the policy’s development. The final policy is due to be presented on March 1, at which point parents and other stakeholders will be able to comment on it. But as to when or how it will be enforced, HDSB Director of Education Curtis Ennis could not say.
Due to current labour negotiations, there is a statutory freeze which does not allow the board to change the conditions of employment, including dress code. That is one factor that could cause delay, Ennis said.
But De Winter says the lengthy process of making a new policy isn’t necessary. “None of this really is necessary. It’s just not appropriate. It’s not going against someone’s human rights. You just tell them it’s not appropriate to wear that to school,” she said on Thursday.
The board was held back last year from committing to a dress code because of worries it would be considered “discriminatory” from a human rights perspective. Board officials have continued to talk about human rights alongside the dress code, saying their approach will be informed by equity advisor opinions.
De Winter said they are “handcuffed because of bureaucracy and policy and procedure” and are ignoring common sense. She likened it to the tale of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
“Everybody is galloping along thinking that they’re doing something fantastic by waiting, letting this completely inappropriately dressed individual carry on in the classroom because they’re supporting rights, when it’s totally wrong,” she said.
De Winter quietly observed the meeting from the gallery but said she understands why some parents were more emotional and aggressive.
People called out criticisms against the board for not taking quicker, more decisive action.
An especially vocal woman was escorted out by police. She alleged Lemieux’s presence in the classroom constitutes sexual abuse of the students. She said the teacher has been “allowed to mock women in grotesque costume.”
Other observer interjections included, “Can’t you just write ‘no fetish wear’ in your policy?” and “The community has been disgusted with your lack of action.” A man said that with continued bomb threats, the board needs to “do something,” and he walked out in apparent disgust. Several people echoed, “Do something.”
The meeting paused and board members said only trustees could ask questions, not the public. The public questions could only be submitted online. “The questions are being submitted but they’re not being answered,” someone in the gallery said.
When the meeting resumed, Trustee Carole Baxter asked about the timelines for developing the administrative procedures to enforce the dress policy.
Ennis said the board is legally required to respect the statutory freeze. “I don’t know when that freeze will be over. It could be next week or it could be next month. I have no idea, nor am I in control of it,” he said. He did not elaborate on the development of the procedures to be put in place when the freeze is lifted.
Board Chair Margo Shuttlesworth asked Ennis to come back on March 1 with more precise answers on timing.
Regarding stakeholder input, Ennis said that after the policy is presented on March 1, “school councils and members of the public will be given an opportunity to have their views heard. So we will at least be providing some mechanism through which we will be soliciting views from school councils to hear their voices and from other stakeholders as well.”
A transgender person named Julia Malott was allowed to speak at the meeting. Malott spoke in favor of enacting a dress code, saying professionalism should be respected and the exaggerated size of the prosthetic breasts is inappropriate.
Some parents at the school, including De Winter, have formed the group Students First Ontario and have hired lawyer Rishi Bandu. Bandu has sent letters to the board on their behalf, demanding action and highlighting the board’s student dress code, which he says would prohibit Lemieux’s attire.
Bandu argues that a teacher who is supposed to enforce a student dress code that prohibits pornographic imagery and visible nipples Bandu argues that a teacher who is supposed to enforce a student dress code that prohibits pornographic imagery and visible nipples should, logically, be expected to follow the same code. He says current policy could thus be used to remedy the situation without the long process of forming new policy and waiting out the statutory freeze.
In a statement issued Thursday, Bandu said the board “is embarking on an unnecessary, extensive consultation process with every school in its jurisdiction. … All that the HDSB needed to do, and still do, is confirm that the values and beliefs reflected in the student dress code must apply to the teachers.”
De Winter said the group’s plan to bring the board under judicial review is on hold for now. They are hoping to resolve the matter without large legal expenses.
In the meantime, Bandu said “this teacher continues to teach in hyper-sexualized attire that parents don’t believe is protected under the human rights ground of ‘gender expression.'”
De Winter said, “There are students at the school who are frightened to attend school every day, because we had another bomb threat yesterday. There are students who are hideously uncomfortable if they have to be in the presence of this person because they’re so uncomfortable with the attire.”
Her child is a grade 10 student at the school. Her child is not in Lemieux’s shop class, but she tells her child to call for a ride home if in a situation where Lemieux will be in close proximity.
Lemieux was away from the school for some months. This may have been due to a foot injury. Pictures of Lemieux back in the school this month, with crutches and cast, have circulated on social media. Lemieux’s return, still wearing a blonde wig and large breasts, has sparked a new wave of outcry.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce has spoken out against Lemieux’s attire and urged the board to take action. He said during media availability on Dec. 19, “Teachers need to uphold, as I’ve noted, the highest professional standards when they are in front of children. And so, I do not believe the board administration has done so to date.”
Regarding the safety of the students amid bomb threats, HDSB said in an email to The Epoch Times in December, “HDSB continues to work with Halton Regional Police Service to investigate recent threats. We are taking any intimidation or threat of violence seriously. While all threats are treated seriously, we believe these threats lack credibility.”
HDSB did not respond as of publication to The Epoch Times request for comment on the board meeting and reactions of parents, as well as recent bomb threats.