Following extensive backlash in response to an Oakville shop teacher’s appearance, the Halton District School Board (HDSB) has unanimously rejected a new professionalism policy for staff.
In an emailed statement to CP24, HDSB representatives Margo Shuttleworth and Curtis Ennis said that the board has identified “an opportunity to strengthen existing procedures, underscoring and affirming expectations of professionalism,” rather than enacting a new policy.
In their statement, Shuttleworth and Ennis went on to say that “the drafting of a professionalism policy has accentuated the importance of focusing on the many policies, procedures, guiding legislation and support documents already in place that reaffirm professionalism.”
The policy the board rejected received criticism earlier this year for its lack of inclusion of a dress code.
The board’s decision follows public outcry at Oakville Trafalgar High School after images of a teacher wearing large prosthetic breasts in the classroom surfaced online.
Photos of the employee inside Oakville Trafalgar High School first appeared last fall and quickly went viral, making international headlines.
The HDSB initially said that it would be a “liability” to impose a dress code amid public criticism but then pivoted and asked staff to draft a “professionalism policy,” which would include elements of a dress code.
Representatives for HDSB said changes to their existing policies regarding professionalism in the workplace could be presented to the board "as soon as the fall."
