Holy Family School in North Battleford. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Eye on education

Officials tight-lipped about investigation into ‘inappropriate communications’ by staff at Holy Family School

Jan 8, 2020 | 5:08 PM

Light of Christ Catholic School Division is being tight-lipped in providing details related to an investigation into an alleged matter. It involved some staff of Holy Family School and local social media activity.

The division confirmed some staff at the school were temporarily “assigned to home” with pay from Nov. 15 to Dec. 3, 2019, while a third-party investigation was being conducted on the alleged matter.

Director of Education Cory Rideout said in a statement that during this period, the school division dealt with “an internal personnel issue.”

He said the alleged issue dealt “solely with negative interactions and inappropriate communications between select staff members on a social media platform.”

“The personal safety and well-being of students and the quality of instruction provided by the staff at the school was not a concern,” he said.

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Rideout said as part of the process when dealing with a confidential personnel matter that involves multiple individuals, “we had to investigate the situation in order to decide regarding how best to resolve the issue.”

He said part of this process was “the ‘assignment to home’ for some of our staff. The term ‘assignment to home’ means that an individual is assigned to home while receiving full pay, during the time an investigation is conducted.”

Rideout said the division took this action to “protect the integrity of the investigation” and reduce any potential interruptions of the day-to-day operation of the school.

When reached by battlefordsNOW, Rideout would not provide any additional details of the alleged matter being investigated other than to confirm it involved social media use.

He said in his statement representatives of the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF) were notified of the issue and participated in the process.

“All support staff involved were provided with the opportunity to have representation during the investigation as well,” Rideout said.

He said during the investigation “every arrangement was made to ensure that the high level of classroom instruction and programming all our parents and our community are accustomed to and deserve continued uninterrupted.”

Rideout added the division wouldn’t be commenting further as the issue is a “personnel-related matter.”

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow